Our nation is six months removed from a heated election process that pitted fellow Americans against one another in parliamentary free-for-all of red versus blue.

Big money was spent, things got personal and ultimately everybody in the country tuned in to watch the punches fly.

Fast-forward to the present, and you find our own Santa Rosa Junior College in a similar situation where we stand in the midst of our own student-body elections.

The only differences worth mentioning between the SRJC and governmental election processes of the United States are pretty much everything.

Granted, it’s borderline outlandish to try comparing the two elections. But if we put things in perspective, it’s ridiculous how out of the 12 student body positions up for election, only three have any semblance of competition and four are uncontested; five currently lack, and will continue to lack, anyone to fill them.

The positions responsible for ensuring the protection of student interests are going vacant, abandoned by the tens of thousands of apathetic SRJC students who don’t bother to pay attention.

Instead most students walk by the voting booths set up in the quad, ignore the emails sent by the college and let their eyes glaze over whenever someone mentions an acronym relating to SRJC.

Without critical representatives such as the executive vice president, most of the Associated Students’ financial responsibilities would go ungoverned.

The rest of the positions are similarly crucial, hardly positions created for bureaucratic nepotism. The continued negligence of the student body to ensure that these positions are filled will end badly for everyone.

They say the quickest way to win a race is a straight line, but the easiest way is to have no competition at all. Let’s stop taking the easy way out, and take an active interest in our school.