Student Body presidential candidates found one thing to agree on - "Family Guy" is better than "The Simpsons."
But when it came to Student Government issues, candidates' answers to student-submitted questions were distinctly different at a debate hosted by the Freshman Leadership Council on Monday night in the Reitz Union.
Kevin Reilly, presidential candidate for the Gator Party, said he's worried that if his opposition - the Orange and Blue Party - takes office, it would bring a platform "full of half-truths and whole-lies."
Tommy Jardon, presidential candidate for the Orange and Blue Party, said if the Gator Party wins, he fears SG would retain the same problems it currently faces, such as wasteful spending.
However, Reilly, who is now Student Senate president, said improving SG wouldn't be a problem.
He said his biggest weakness would be "taking on too much at once."
With Florida State University students using online voting for the first time in their Student Government Association elections Wednesday, students asked the UF candidates how they felt about a recent UF Supreme Court ruling that an online-voting amendment would be unconstitutional.
Jardon, president of Students for Online Voting, said he didn't agree and questioned how the court could reach that decision when no state court has ruled it out at other universities.
Students for Online Voting filed a lawsuit against UF on Friday denouncing the ruling.
Jardon said online voting would raise voter turnout and called the court's decision "shameful."
Reilly said low voter turnout in SG elections could be increased in other ways, such as educating students through on-campus events.
"It's important students do come to campus and interact with candidates on some level," Reilly said. "It's a shame if they just read a paper or a screen online and cast their vote based on that."
Along with low voter turnout, candidates disagreed about why some students feel that SG doesn't affect them.
Reilly said the effects of SG are everywhere.
"Any student who has ever been to the gym, ever walked into the Reitz Union or gone on the buses in their lives has been affected by SG," Reilly said.
Jardon said the main problem is that SG leaders don't represent most students.
"It's not a government reflective of them but rather speaks to them and down to them," Jardon said.
In response to a question about potentially hiking tuition to help UF deal with budget cuts, Reilly said he is for it.
He said UF needs more money to provide a better education to students.
But Jardon said SG should focus on protecting the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Program before discussing tuition hikes.
Vice presidential candidates - Frank Bracco from the Orange and Blue Party and Yooni Yi from the Gator Party - each promised that their plans for SG would help a wide variety of UF students.
Treasurer candidates, Shea Parrish from the Orange and Blue Party and Paul Drayton from the Gator Party, listed their qualifications and agreed on a goal of "streamlining" the process for providing money to student organizations.
