Sophomore Runs for President; Princeton Forgets to Tell Freshmen No One Cares About USG

The USG just released the list of candidates running in the winter 2009 elections (full list here). A couple quick things worth noting about this year's candidate pool:The majority of positions will not be contested!Seven positions (ULC Chair, Academics Chair, Treasurer, and both Senate seats for the classes of 2011 and 2012) have only one candidate running. This is going to make it really tricky for the USG to mess up these specific elections. But if anyone can do it, the USG can!A sophomore is running for USG President!Michael Yaroshefsky '12 is one of four candidates running for USG President, but he's the only one who isn't a junior. Leslie-Bernard Joseph '06 was famously defeated when he ran his sophomore year and won his junior year.*The entire freshman class is running for Senator!Not really. But 19 candidates are running, more than all the candidates running for all the other positions combined! It seems like this happens every year - lots of kids run, lots of hopes and dreams get smashed, and the crushing inevitability of incumbency begins its slow and deliberate process.The take-away? Unless you're a freshman or passionate about the presidency and vice-presidency, your vote isn't really going to matter. You will, however, get to use the super-sweet new voting system, which for us is incentive enough. Yay democracy!*Correction: An earlier version of this blog post incorrectly stated that Leslie-Bernard Joseph '06 had won the presidency in his sophomore year.(image source: http://artupton.com/newtom/newsflashes/images/voting_booth.gif)