Freshman class representative elections concluded Wednesday with four new appointments, including freshman class president. However, a penalty for election code infringement made the difference for one of the candidates.
Nicholas Robson, first-year AE, led all candidates with 146 votes to become the new freshman class president.
Filling out the other three freshman representative positions are Eran Mordel, first-year MGT, who placed second with 144 votes; Michael Musgrove, first-year MGT, who received 142 votes and Vanessa Vakiri, first-year BIO, with 140 votes.
A total of 1457 votes were cast in total among 15 candidates, all of whom were new freshmen. Voting was conducted via the web starting beginning Sept. 11 at 1 p.m. and ended at 4 p.m. Wednesday. The results were announced Wednesday night by Mike Donohue, SGA elections chair and second-year PUBP.
The appointments of new freshman class representatives in the fall out of freshman candidates is a departure from previous years when the elections were held the previous spring out of students who would be second-year students while representing the freshman class.
“I think a lot of freshmen come out of high school really ready to get involved in student government,” Donohue said. “[Picking freshman representatives out of the new freshman class] really makes SGA more responsive to the student body to have more people representing their own type, and makes [representatives] more reactive to what [their constituents] want.”
The Elections Committee ruled Sept. 10 by a 6-0 vote that one candidate, Katie Flint, first-year CHBE, had violated the elections code by chalking on areas including the library fountain, Skiles Walkway and on West Campus. Per elections code, candidates are not permitted to chalk anywhere on institute property. As a result, Flint was ordered to remove chalking from all surfaces and her vote total was docked by 15 votes.
Flint received 143 votes originally, which would have been the third highest finish and enough to secure a representative position. Because of the penalty, she dropped down to 128 votes. As a result, the penalty dropped her behind five other candidates and therefore out of the running for a position.
The same day this election closed, another poll opened to fill seats in SGA’s other legislative body. Graduate students have until Friday at 4 p.m. to visit and choose their representation in the Graduate Student Senate.