Like the first day of qualifying and slating for the Student Senate, the UF Student Government Fall 2014 elections are off to a slow start.
A total of 4,681 votes were cast Tuesday, according to UF Supervisor of Elections Hans Rojas, which is 1,443 ballots fewer than last Fall’s elections. Fall 2013’s first day saw 6,124 ballots, a turnout that trumped Spring 2014’s first day tally of 5,457 ballots.
While no technical glitches were reported, Rojas said he filed two complaints with the Elections Commission against Swamp Party and Evan Morris, one of two Independent candidates, because they failed to submit financial statements before the deadline.
Elections commission chairman Harold Holder was unable to be reached for comment.
Morris, a candidate for District B, said he hopes there is a higher voter turnout in the second day of voting.
“I’m kind of nervous to hear the results, but I’m more hopeful that students will go out and vote,” the 20-year-old UF marketing junior said.
Swamp Party spokeswoman Katie Backstrand said the party will continue to campaign and urge students to vote today.
“We have been out there every day and will be out there all day today and tomorrow in order to educate the student body about Student Government elections as much as possible and get their feedback,” she wrote in an email.
Preston Jones, 18, an independent candidate running to represent Hume Hall in the Senate, has spent the last two days campaigning outside of Hume. The UF civil engineering freshman said he thinks voter turnout will be higher for Hume because of the competition between himself and Swamp Party candidate Rachael Laky for the residence hall’s sole Senate seat.
Bridget Chalifour, 19, voted for Jones at the Reitz Union Computer Lab because she appreciated his devotion to Hume and his platform.
“I read his platform, and I agree with everything that he stands for,” the UF environmental science sophomore said.
Since he personally knew two candidates, Manny Fernandez, a 22-year-old fifth-year UF linguistics senior, cast his ballot at the Norman Hall library for all nine of District A’s Swamp Party candidates.
“Where I live, there is only Swamp Party, so I voted for them,” Fernandez said. “The two people I knew personally, so I trust them in Student Government.”
Today is the last day to vote, and the 12 polling stations will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Unlike past elections, election results will be posted online rather than announced to a crowd, and paper copies of the results will be available at the Reitz Union’s third floor lobby by 10 p.m. today, Rojas said.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 10/1/2014]
