Undergraduate Assembly and Class Board elections closed yesterday afternoon with only a 32.5 percent voting turnout among the three classes -- a drop of nearly 20 percent from last year's numbers.
The freshman class showed the largest voter turnout at 41.7 percent, while only 31.2 percent of juniors and 24.5 percent of sophomores voted.
"Although these numbers might not be as high as we would have hoped, more than a fourth of the undergraduate population went and voted," said Nominations and Elections Committee Vice Chairwoman for Elections Tatiana Bautista. "That shows us that there are people who really are interested."
And as of last night, violations had been filed against two candidates. UA Vice Chairman Ethan Kay and UA Treasurer Gautam Mashettiwar filed against College sophomore and UA College representative candidate Rusty Fein for exceeding the spending limit. College freshman and sophomore class president candidate Sean Foley filed against Freshman Class President Jack Cohen for using listservs as an incumbent to solicit votes.
Candidates remain in waiting until results are announced after the Fair Practice Code hearing this evening, conducted by the NEC, which organized the elections as an impartial body, publicized for the elections, served as liaisons for candidates and tallied up votes.
Only Bautista has access to the results until tonight. The process is confidential; the votes of NEC members are not swayed at the FPC hearing.
"If there are any violations, we will look at them at that point, and a decision will be made," Bautista said. "Then, when they have all been resolved, we will proceed and announce the results of the elections."
NEC Chairwoman Rebecca Silberman said that this year's election process has proceeded smoothly, despite some changes in election policies.
"We were a little worried about how the opening of the listservs would turn out," Silberman said. But she added that candidates used it appropriately by "direct marketing to specific groups on specific issues."
"It's wonderful that they opened up the listservs to candidates," said UA member Yelena Gershman, a Wharton sophomore. "This way, you really can have an issue-based campaign."
This feature was employed by organizations that included the College Democrats and Republicans, Asian Pacific Student Coalition, United Minorities Council, Latino Coalition and UMOJA.
"Ultimately, we see it as a mechanism that will better hold the UA members accountable," APSC Political Vice Chairman Clarence Tong said.
Silberman said one of the NEC's final tasks of the semester will be running the UA's transition meeting on April 15, when UA internal elections will take place. The NEC is also considering working with the UA to better ease new members into their positions.
Silberman said, "It might be part of our responsibility to help the UA initiate their new members."
