The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/s-a-_elections/)
As a candidate in this election, I cannot stress enough the gravity of this error. By the end of this election, thousands of students will likely have their ballots invalidated.
We call on the Office of the Assemblies, the administrative office that oversees all of the University’s assemblies, to optimally count all ballots currently submitted regardless of whether or not the voter ranked all candidates for the particular race.
Cornell Student Assembly elections are upon us, so I’ve compiled a helpful guide to the types of candidates you’ll see swarming Cornell’s common spaces for the next two weeks.
Members of the Student Assembly held internal elections yesterday to elect three vice presidents as well as members of the appropriations committee and the SAFC liaison.
Nikhil Kumar ’11 was elected vice president for internal operations, Chris Basil ’10 was elected vice president for finance, Vincent Andrews ’11 was elected vice president for public relations and Justin Min ’11 was elected the SAFC liaison.
The members elected to the appropriations committee were Adam Nicoletti ’12 (CALS), Adam Raveret ’12 (Arts and Sciences), Zach Glasser ’12 (Engineering), Mike DeLucia ’12 (Engineering) and Kristan Welch ’10 (Human Ecology).
The Student Assembly announced on Friday that its leaders for the coming year will be President Rammy Salem ’10 and Executive Vice President Olamide Williams ’10. In its first direct election of executive officers, the S.A. saw a record number of voters, amounting to over 4,300. Seven slates campaigned for the President/EVP position in one of the most competitive elections in recent history.
“In this race, people actually turned out to vote,” Williams said. “We want to have that same desire from students carry over into next semester. The Student Assembly is supposed to be the governing body between students and administration.”
The Student Assembly’s decision to allow the student body to directly elect its next president and executive vice president was intended to “make the elections process both more open and more democratic,” according to Resolution 12, passed by the S.A. last spring.