2008 Woodie Awards
ASISU election results announced
Spencer, Butticci voted in as new ASISU Pres., VP despite low voter turnout
Jason Enes
Issue date: 4/2/08 Section: News
| |
|
The election was held on Tuesday, March 18 and Wednesday, March 19. The results were announced Wednesday evening, with a new ASISU President and Vice President, a new Idaho Falls Vice President and 20 new Senators celebrating their victories.An amendment to the ASISU Constitution passed with 71.8 percent approval. A total of only 1,324 students voted in the election.
"As a board we were disappointed with the voter turnout for this election," said Election Board Chair Tyler Kendall. "We did however, expect a lower turnout because of the lack of people running for office, particularly the executive ticket."
On the executive ticket there were only two sets of candidates: Matt Spencer and Carissa Butticci and write-in candidates Tom Briggs and Stephanie Benao. 899 votes were cast for the executive ticket with Spencer and Butticci garnering 630 of them, and Briggs and Benao garnering 269 votes.
The amendment to the ASISU constitution on the election ballot this year will allow students to place initiatives on the general election ballot if the required number of signatures (300) are obtained, and would then require 60 percent of voters to pass. The amendment passed with 570 votes, or 71.8 percent in favor of adding the amendment to the ASISU Constitution.
Twenty Senate seats were also to be filled by this year's election, with three write-in candidates - Tanner Morgan, Tyler Liddle and Tanielle Jimenez - winning the College of Technology seats because no others officially registered to run.
"There were no major controversies this year," Kendall said. "Candidates were largely respectful of one another and we are certainly pleased by that."
Other winners of Senate seats included Justin Messenger in the College of Pharmacy, who won by nine votes, and Stephanie Hall, Adam Gault and write-in candidate Ben Murray in the college of Health Professions.
In the College of Graduate Studies there was a 12-vote spread between first and fourth place. Write-in candidate Kama Lakar Swarna won by four votes over Mark Bolinger, who will also join him on the senate next semester. Bolinger won his seat by one vote over Katie Anderson.
Kyle Woodhouse won the College of Engineering seat by five votes. Joelle Brown and Steven Saltzman will be the Senators for the College of Education.
Chris Allbright and Jordan Cheirrett won in the College of Business and Whitney Jensen; Udipta Wagley; Casidy Jahnke; Ross Knight; Dustin Portela and Praweg Koirala won the six seats in the College of Arts and Sciences.
"Even though it was a poor executive ticket campaign, the elections were still a success and we hope to see a better turnout next year," Kendall said.
There were also a few things that he said the Election Board was pleased about this year. Kendall said they were very pleased with the way that the clubs on campus used their ability to endorse candidates, which the board allowed for the first time this year. He also said that clubs responded well to the candidates who sought club endorsements he thinks that this will become a very important campaign tool for candidates in the future.
"It is important to note though, that we still had a better turnout than we ever did with the paper ballot system," Kendall said. "Online elections are the way to go."
Be the first to comment on this story