Today, a handful of students, mostly friends of candidates, will enter three polling locations on campus and choose the next student senators. Maybe 1 percent of the student population will vote, and even less will care.

Democracy has never been so underwhelming.

The Student Association has slid down a slippery slope of general apathy for the past few years, with Charlie Chaplin laughs but Carrot Top skill. For every inroad made toward credibility, there’s the looming presence of a Student Senate with less initiative than a couch potato during a “Simpsons” marathon.

Technically, it isn’t supposed to be like this. The SA Constitution infers that the senate should offer a check on the executive branch’s power by questioning decisions, offering up legislation to help students and acting in the best interests of those same students.

But in the recent past, senate leaders can breathe a sigh of relief when enough senators show up to hold the meeting. No one’s interests are served in quorum victories.

And that trend most definitely will continue, no matter who serves this school year. The outmoded ward election system means the two people running in Ward 1 (commuter district) will win with a self-promotional vote. Congratulations, Frank Woodin and Stephen Kulovits, on a hard-won campaign victory.

So there will be 31 senators instead of 40, before the inevitable disenchantment lowers that number even more. And another student issue goes by the wayside.

But there may be a lining, and it could just be silver.

Suck up some pride and clean house, SA. Pitch the ward system, because when was the last time a senator even mentioned their “constituents?” And in a more drastic measure, cut the number of senators to 20.

In other forms of government, lowering the number of representatives would stoke fears of a lack in representation. But what the SA needs is a small concentration of impassioned leaders who will ignore that cell phone call, put off dinner and give themselves up for the sake of students.

Then, just maybe, elections would mean something substantive and students would have a choice.

It may just be too late this year, though. But with some selfless new senators, the votes and debates may finally outnumber the sighs of frustration.