On Election Day, much of the campus will watch the polls to see which candidates are elected to office, but a few students will be watching closer than the rest. For three local candidates, the results won’t just be a number on the screen – they could be a ticket to a political office.

Andrew Fitzgerald, Tom Mackaman and Susan Rodgers are all University students running for local office. Their status as students has played an important role in each of their campaigns.

Rodgers is a sophomore in LAS running for the County Board on the Green Party ticket. She is also the president of the Campus Greens. Her campaign staff consists entirely of students – part of her effort to help students “realize how powerful a voice they have.”

“Students are underrepresented here because they don’t hold office,” Rodgers said. “They need to be better informed.”

Fitzgerald, a junior in LAS running for the County Board as a Republican, said no student has ever been on the County Board.

“They’ve always gerrymandered campus so students couldn’t be represented,” Fitzgerald said.

Mackaman, a graduate student in LAS running for the state House of Representatives, said attracting student votes is important because of the nature of his party, the Socialist Equality Party.

“I hope to get a lot of students and working-class people,” Mackaman said. “There are advantages to being here because students are searching for different ways of addressing problems they confront.”

Mackaman said he is not interested in a career in politics. He is nearing his doctorate in history, and wants to become a professor one day. By running for office, he said, he is working for principles, not a future career.

If elected, each student said they would try to improve the lives of their fellow students while in office. Fitzgerald criticized the spending of the County Board, and said he hoped to lower property taxes to keep rent prices down for students. Rodgers criticized the County Board for spending money to attract large corporations to off-campus locations instead of to support small businesses on campus.

Because Rodgers and Mackaman are running as third-party candidates, they are looking not only to win but to gain interest among students for the future.

“I’m running to lay the groundwork to build a party of the working class,” Mackaman said. “We’re fighting for principles.”

Rodgers also said she considers drawing student support a priority.

“I think a lot of the issues we’re working on appeal to students because they’re dissatisfied with typical government and the Greens are very progressive,” Rodgers said.

Fitzgerald is the only student running with one of the two major parties, but he still finds the experience different as a student.

“I feel that the Republican Party has given me ample opportunity,” he said. “But it is different because I’m not going to the Chamber of Commerce or the Farm Bureau to campaign. If a Republican was able to carry some student vote, that would be huge.”

Fitzgerald said he has always been interested in a career in politics, but it is not his goal. He is interested in writing or law, he said.

“Things are looking as good as they could right now, but it’s not great,” Fitzgerald said. “It will take a huge movement by students to get a student to win.

Whether he wins or not, Fitzgerald said he believes it is important for some students to serve in office.

“I would encourage students to get involved in one of the campaigns,” Fitzgerald said. “We need to get represented on the local level.”