Aaron Terrazas/The Hoya Luis Torres (COL ’05) swears in newly elected Assembly members Drew Rau (SFS ’05) and Aartie Manansignh (SFS ’07).
Sixteen GUSA Representatives were elected Thursday evening in an uneventful election in which only one problem was reported.
For the junior class, Chaz Perin (COL ’05), Matt Mauney (COL ’05), Sam Hill (SFS ’05) and Ben Cote (COL ’05) were the top four vote-winners among the 447 votes cast, receiving 27.5 percent, 22.5 percent, 18.6 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively. Cote won as a write-in candidate and various other write-ins accounted for the remaining percentage of votes. Each student voting in the elections is permitted to cast up to four votes.
Drew Rau (SFS ’06), Chris Schmitter (SFS ’06), Kyle “Tex” Miler (MSB ’06) and Dave Hartzler (COL ’05) will represent the class of 2006. They received 19 percent, 17 percent, 16.4 percent and 16.3 percent, respectively, of the 979 votes cast.
Happy Johnson (COL ’07), Pravin Rajan (SFS ’07), Aartie Manansingh (SFS ’07) and Ed Duffy (SFS ’07) won 19.3 percent, 15 percent, 13.7 percent and 12.4 percent, respectively, among 2221 votes cast by the class of 2007.
When the ballot was first sent out on the Saxa Server at midnight, the class of 2007 ballot mistakenly omitted anansingh’s name and instead listed candidate Moises Mendoza (SFS ’07) twice. According to Matt Krause (COL ’05), who works for Saxa Server, the problem consisted of a human error that occurred while typing up the ballot and was remedied within 20 minutes. All the students who voted before the error was fixed were contacted and given the option to revote. Several did, Krause said.
Election Commissioner Lisa Lombardo (COL ’04) said that the error did not have any effect on the election’s outcome. She said she was appreciative of both Krause and the Election Commission for solving the problem so rapidly.
Immediately after the results were announced, the outgoing Assembly convened for a last time to approve the election results. Newly-confirmed GUSA vice president Luis Torres (COL ’05) then swore in the new Assembly.
Manansingh said she appreciated Lombardo’s efforts to quickly resolve the ballot error. She also noted her unique position as the only woman elected to the Assembly.
“Without as many girls on the Assembly, it may not be too representative of the student body, but I’m sure the guys will do a good job of representing everyone,” she said.
Schmitter, who also ran for GUSA president in February, said he was pleased to be able to work on his campaign goals in his capacity as a class representative.
“We made a commitment to achieve some goals in the last election and now we are going to see that they are implemented,” he said.
Entering his second term, Duffy said, “It’s a lot easier now that I know the ropes, but at the same time it’s more demanding because you know there’s a bureaucracy and you have to work with it.”
This was the first election since February’s disputed GUSA executive election, and Lombardo did take some different precautions than in the past.
“We were more apt to warn people and discuss something that went wrong rather than fine people,” she said. “We have always been aware of the bylaws, but now we are more aware of how they are interpreted.”
