The Community Senate held its Fall elections last Wednesday for Residence hall, First-year, and Sophomore Class representatives.The elections, which were originally scheduled for Tuesday the 11th, were pushed to Wednesday after the attacks on the WTC buildings in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.
“We wanted people to have the day to grieve,” said Chris Babcock, Guilford senior and Vice President of Senate, whose job it was to run the elections.
The votes cast on Tuesday before the time of cancellation were included in the total. “We picked up the election right where we left off,” said Rebecca Saunders, who is serving her first year as staff advisor for Community Senate.
Saunders, hired recently to fill the position left by Dawn Watkins, had little to do with the election process, preferring to remain hands-off and simply oversee it. “This is a year of learning and observing for me,” she said.
One thing she might have observed is how the voter turnout was affected, if at all, by the change in dates. Posters and a voice-mail message advertised the election, but it is not considered as big an event as the spring elections for Senate executives.
“Fall elections are generally not campaigned for,” said Megan Page, senior and Senate President. “The goal is to get representatives in and start working.”
Turnout for fall elections is “never brilliant anyway,” said Babcock. “It’s hard to get people to vote [even] when there isn’t any crisis,” he added, referring to Tuesday’s events in New York and Washington. Babcock reported incidents of handing ballots to passers-by in Founders, and being handed the ballots back. “People turned down the chance to vote.”
However, he was encouraged by a large contingent of first-year voters on both Tuesday and Wednesday. Babcock felt that the election wasn’t under-advertised, or inexcusably disrupted, since first-year students are unfamiliar with the routine and “they knew about it anyway.”
Page was pleased with the results, considering the obstacles involved. She added that “Chris did an excellent job organizing the postponement.”
The results are as follows: for Binford’s three representatives, Margaret Osborne, Amy Kellogg, and Patrick Brennan were elected unopposed. For Brian’s four, Andrew Kristel, Erin Houlihan, and Elizabeth Appenzeller were elected unopposed, with Dave Thomas winning as a write-in candidate.
English voted on its representative separately, and he is yet to be approved by the full Senate.
Lizzy Gillespie was elected to represent Mary Hobbs’ one seat. Erin Walker-McMullen was elected to Shore’s.
Sam Meyers, Emily Reusing, and Jessie Malamed were elected unopposed to represent Milner’s four seats, with a fourth representative not yet determined. The Apartments/Alternative Housing seats were awarded to Matt Baker, Jonny Horwitz, and Maya Burlingame.
Stephanie Nalpantyan ran unopposed to represent First-Years. Sophomore Ryan Malur won against Rushdee Omar in the only contested election.