Voter turnout jumps 10 percent

Over 38 percent of the freshman class showed up at the polls to vote for their class representatives this week -- over 10 percent higher than last year's Undergraduate Assembly election turnout. 888 freshmen cast their ballots in voting booths across campus to elect eight out of a total of 33 candidates, College junior Michael Monson, Nominations and Elections Committee elections chairperson said yesterday. College freshmen Jeff Wu, Ashley Magids, Tamara Dubowitz, Christian Hensley, Lance Rogers and Lauren Lazare and Wharton freshmen Dan Debicella and Quang O all won seats on the UA. As the student with the greatest number of votes Wu will serve on University Council. The eight winners were announced yesterday after an hour-long hearing session in which 15 candidates were charged with violating the Fair Practice Code during their campaign. Charges against all but one of the candidates were withdrawn or dropped. Wharton freshman Winnifer Thomas did not attend the hearing and was disqualified. While elated at their victory, many of the winners expressed concern over the low voter turnout. "I'm sort of displeased that it was that narrow," Rogers said. "[The NEC is] pleased with it, but one of my aims as a UA representative is to increase voter turnout by getting everybody in the class involved and to hold class meetings. It's only fair that they have an equal say." Others, like Debicella, said they were pleased with the turnout since it was higher than last year. "It's phenomenal to go up to 38 percent," Debicella said. "That shows more students than last year are getting interested in the UA." UA Chairperson Jeff Lichtman said he is "psyched to get new blood into the UA." "I'm sure all of the [new representatives] are ready to hit the ground running," College senior Lichtman said. Lichtman said the new members are valuable assets to the UA as their input will be from students "who have not yet extablished any biases [about the University]." The winners said they used a variety of tactics to promote their candidacies. Rogers said he printed up flyers and homemade stickers on his computer. Hensley said he took a personal approach, shaking a lot of hands, saying it is important "to meet people face to face and talk about what is important to them." Dubowitz said she was the first candidate to hang up flyers across campus, beginning shortly after the 8 a.m. Wednesday starting time. Candidates were given a $27 ceiling on all campaign publicity expenses and had to report their total costs to the NEC by Monday.

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