One-third of eligible students cast ballot

The Undergraduate Assembly and class board elections came to a close yesterday with a slight decrease in voter turnout from last year.

According to Nominations and Elections Committee Vice Chairman of Elections Eli Hoffman, 2,508 students voted in the election -- representing about 33.4 percent of the undergraduate student body.

Last year, the voter turnout was about 36 percent, which amounts to nearly 200 more students than turned out for this year's election. But Hoffman downplayed the issue.

"Voter turnout is not significantly different from last year," Hoffman said.

According to Hoffman, the decrease in the number of candidates and the high rate of candidates running unopposed made for less campaigning and therefore fewer voters.

No violations were filed against the candidates for the first time since the fall of 2002.

Since then, there have been one or two violations per election.

Last fall, a candidate was disqualified for spending more than her $50 campaign limit.

A year ago, another candidate violated the NEC's Fair Practice Code by neglecting to state his full name in an application for an endorsement that he submitted to the Penn College Democrats.

This year, three candidates who ran write-in campaigns for UA Engineering positions received the 32 votes required to become eligible candidates.

The results of the election will be announced today at 7 p.m. in the Ben Franklin Room of Houston Hall.

"The candidates have really worked hard on their campaigns," Hoffman said. "They are anxious to hear the results."

Some members of the student body remain much more apathetic than the candidates.

"I didn't even know that there were any elections," Engineering senior John Burke said.

Others said they didn't feel the election affected them. Seniors, for instance, could only vote on an internal UA referendum.

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