By Bailee Neyman
The University of Maryland’s Student Government Association held a special election this week, Oct. 2 through Oct. 6, but some UMD students feel that not many are engaged in the election process.
The special election followed the disqualification of both previous tickets, JusticeUMD and RollTerps, last spring. In the interim, SGA has been acting in a limited capacity.
Candidates for the special election could not start campaigning until Sept. 26, a week before voting closed. The campaigning tickets were ReviveUMD, VoiceForAll, TransformUMD, The Vanguard Initiative, Beyond the Shell and People Not Politics. Nine independent candidates ran as well.
While this race marks a major turning point for student leadership, many students are unaware that there is campaigning going on at all.
“I’ve seen probably one or two advertisements,” freshman government and politics and economics major Kaitlyn Thomas said.
The special election consisted of 57 candidates running for legislative seats across all 13 colleges, five candidates running for student body president, five candidates running for executive vice president and three candidates running for vice president of financial affairs.
Freshman computer science major Elisabeth Min shared a similar experience to Thomas, saying the only advertisements she had seen for the election were from her friend who had run for the legislative branch.
“I know it’s a little bit similar to the SGAs in high school, but on [a] larger scale. I’m actually not too informed about it,” said Min.
Min is not alone. Most students reached out to for comments on the election by Stories Beneath The Shell either declined to comment or shared that they did not understand what SGA does for the UMD community.
“I think not a lot of people fully understand that there is an election going on,” said freshman government and politics and journalism major Ben Kasofsky. Kasofsky is the sole candidate running for the Phillip Merrill College of Journalism seat in SGA’s legislative branch.
“I think it’s partly to do with the fact that it’s a special election,” he said. “Not as many people are aware it’s not following the normal election cycle.”
Kasofsky also cited a lack of social media presence behind the special election as part of the reason students may be unaware.
“I think that SGA could do a much better job at using social media and posters around campus to get more students involved and knowledgeable about their efforts in the elections,” Kasofsky said.
SGA does have accounts on X, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube. However, their latest YouTube post was made in March and they have not posted on either X or Facebook since April.
This election cycle, SGA has made multiple Instagram posts in collaboration with the elections commissions account . The most recent post announced the start of voting for the special election and was made on Oct. 1. It received 28 likes and one comment.
According to SGA election regulations, the results should be verified within the coming week and announced 24 hours after they are verified. Violations could delay results, but Oct. 6 was the deadline for violations to be reported. As of Thursday, no violations have been announced or reported in the 2026 violation tracking public record. The winning candidates are scheduled to be inaugurated on Oct. 19.
Featured Image: The SGA Suite in Adele H. Stamp Student Union. Photo by Charlotte Florin.