The Office of Assemblies released preliminary results for the 2003 Student Assembly (S.A.) Elections yesterday at 4:30 p.m.
Director of the Office of Assemblies Hope Mandeville estimated that close to 5000 studets voted this year, and almost 4300 were votes cast by undergraduates. This 32 percent voter turnout increased by 8 percent from last year’s 24 percent.
“Everybody was happy with the voter turnout. We wanted a good turnout, and electronic voting couldn’t be easier,” Mandeville said.
For results, see below.
The elections committee, consisting of S.A. President Noah Doyle ’03, Josh Roth ’03, Jay Greenberg ’03 and chair Leslie Barkemeyer ’03, began their series of challenge hearings yesterday afternoon at 5 p.m in 102 Rockefeller Hall. This year all races were contested, and the Elections Committee must review each challenge, allowing a five-minute argument from both parties, three minutes of comments from the committee, three minutes of comments from the community and an additional five minutes of rebuttal for each party. After the hearings, the Committee will deliberate and release a final list of S.A. representatives.
Candidates raised challenges on any campaigning they felt broke the code of elections. Allegations included posters taped in residence halls illegally, flyers placed in campus mailboxes, overspending and illegal e-mailing.
Additionally, multiple challenges were filed against Stuti Mandala ’04, Josh Bronstein ’05, Ben Lowe ’04 and Jenn Hoos ’04 for an e-mail they undersigned as members of the Student Activities Funding Commission (SAFC). The e-mail was sent to student organizations funded by the SAFC, encouraging them to vote for candidates on the Cornell Democrats ticket.
“By doing this, these candidates have violated campus conduct and created a hostile environment,” the challenge states.
Ross Blankenship ’05 commented on the outcome of the S.A. elections.
“There has been a lot of corruption involved, and key S.A. members have taken advantage of the campaign process. I hope there are some major reforms in the future, before anybody has to run again,” Blankenship said.
Newly-elected Stephanie Adams ’04, on the other hand, was excited about the election results.
“I’m extremely enthusiastic about the year to come because I see a lot of potential for the U.A. that has not been released yet, and I’m looking forward to working with these new U.A. members to lock that potential,” Adams said. “This year the election was the toughest I’ve ever seen, and those candidates that won deserve it because they were willing to work for it.”
The Trustee Committee chaired by Prof. Peter Stein, physics, will meet on Friday to hear the challenges for Student Trustee candidates Jackie Koppell ’05, Gayraud Townsend ’05, Jennifer Lee ’05 and Diego Jiminez ’05. The results of race will be released later this week.
Archived article by Sarah Workman