While a 2.5 percent voter turnout may not seem like a encouraging number for most elections, it has given ASMSU a vote of confidence.
“The number is not that good, but it’s something we can build upon,” said Nimri Niemchak, ASMSU chief of staff. “We’re leaps and bounds ahead of last year.”
The number is a percentage of the 31,795 student voters eligible to cast ballots in last week’s three-day ASMSU election.
It is a .9 percent increase in voter turnout from last year’s undergraduate student government election, according to official numbers released by ASMSU Tuesday.
Although the increase is an improvement from the 2000 election, Niemchak said it’s still a long way from where voter turnout needs to be.
“There should have been an improvement,” Niemchak said. “If you have only 2.5 percent of the students you represent voting, that is not a very good sign.”
Of the 24 students that won a ASMSU representatives seat, 10 were re-elected. Only 32 candidates vied for the 61 available assembly spots.
“I am happy that I was re-elected,” Matt Clayson, a James Madison College incumbent who is ready to serve his second session with Academic Assembly said. “I have a lot of issues I would like to address this year.
“Also, I had a lot of unfinished business I wanted to take care of.”
Students who lost their bid for an ASMSU seat have another two days to request a recount from the student government or file a complaint with the All-University Student Judiciary if they feel the election was not properly executed.
Because there were not enough candidates running for the open college seats, it is likely a lot of students will be appointed during ASMSU’s next session, said Julia Wimberley, ASMSU Web site director.
Also approved by students were the three referendums on this year’s ASMSU ballot.
The approved referendums include: a measure giving the Residence Halls Association a voting seat on the ASMSU Academic Assembly, an increase in funding the ASMSU Programming Board receives from the student government, and a decrease in the amount of student signatures required on a petition to overturn a decision by ASMSU.
Meanwhile, students who are serving their first terms on the student government will be preparing for their first official meeting next week. ASMSU’s current session ends Thursday.
“I am really excited because I can finally get some things that have been on my mind about the university out there,” said Cara Robinson, a no-preference freshman who won a College of Natural Science Student Assembly seat.
