AS elections today and tomorrow

By MAURICE O. NDOLE and TASHA GALLEGOS

Students will get a chance to elect a new student government today and Thursday during the Associated Students general election.

The voting will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at four polling locations across campus; the Joyal Administration Building, the Satellite Student Union, the University Student Union and the South Gym.

But there are complications.

There are no candidates running for the seat of vice president of finance. No candidates have signed up to run for senatorial seats for the Colleges of Social Sciences, Health and Human Services, and the Kremen School of Education and Craig School of Business.

The uncontested senator positions are open for students to write in a name.

“One of the reasons we are having so many write-ins is because people did not turn in their petitions in time,” election commissioner Deborah Napoleon said.

This situation allows students to write in the name of any student they want to fill the position.

Napoleon said this would pose some challenges in counting the votes and confirming the winning candidates.

“One of the challenges with the write-in candidates is people are going to have to write in clearly and have the correct spelling,” Napoleon said.

Napoleon said writing in candidates’ names also presents the commission with the challenge of confirming the candidates’ identities and ensuring the candidates are registered in the college for which they have been voted into office.

Napoleon said her commission would direct students to the polling locations using signs, banners and balloons.

The AS presidential race will pit Jennifer Reimer, the current AS vice president of finance, against Vianey Nunez, the current senator for the college of social sciences.

The AS president is responsible for representing students in meetings, as well as at the university and community events. The president also participates in writing and passing legislation and is obligated to meet with students and discuss issues affecting the student body.

The vice president of finance is responsible for the AS budget allocations and for preparing and administering the annual budget.

There are 21 students running for various senator positions. School senators represent their specific schools or colleges on campus. Three candidates are running for senator of the School of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (Chris L. McKenna, Nicole Richardson and Kelly M. Ansaldo). There are two candidates for senator of the College of Arts and Humanities, Apryl-Joy M. Pascua and Jamie K. Buckner.

The College of Science and Mathematics has two candidates (Melissa S. Gushiken and Analuz Torres), while Steve Delsid is the only candidate running for the senator position in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

There are also 13 candidates running for at-large senator positions. Seven of these candidates will be chosen.

Napoleon said counting the votes would start as soon as all the ballots have been gathered from the polling locations. She said the vote-counting process, which will take place in USU Room 312-314, will be open to the public and the results are expected to be announced Thursday by 10 p.m.