The first day of voting yielded a healthy turnout for the Fall 2013 Student Government elections.
A total of 6,124 votes were cast Tuesday, an improvement from the first day of voting in Fall 2012 with 5,860 votes but a slight drop from Spring 2013’s turnout of 6,274 ballots, according to Alligator archives.
Supervisor of Elections Justin Hoover faced a slight road bump Tuesday morning: At about 9 a.m., computers displayed the wrong sample ballot for District D, showing the ballot from last Fall.
Hoover said he contacted the UF Information Technology department immediately, and the correct sample ballot was posted within an hour.
Afterward, it was smooth sailing.
“It’s probably the easiest voting process I’ve ever had here at UF,” said family, youth and community sciences junior Tyler Redden, 26, who was in and out of the ground-floor computer lab at the Reitz Union.
Today is the last day to vote.
Polls will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. at 12 locations.
Students will need their Gator 1 Card or a valid picture ID and UFID number to vote.
Polling locations include Room C202 in the Springs Residential Complex, Commons Conference Room 106 in the Murphree Common Building, second floor study area in Bryan Hall, the basement of Broward Hall, the first-floor library of Jennings Hall, the Bruton Greer Hall side hallway by doors in the back at the UF College of Law, the main room of the Computer Sciences Engineering building, the main room of the Marston Science Library, the ground floor computer lab at the Reitz Union, Room C2-041C in the Health Science Center, the cafe near the entrance on the left side of Southwest Recreation Center and Room V1-104 of the Veterinary Academic Building.
In Fall elections, senator’s representations are based on residence halls and zip codes.
To verify your address and ensure voting in the correct district, visit http://www.registrar.ufl.edu/currents/addresschange.html.
Voting results will be announced at 9:30 p.m. at the Reitz Union breezeway next to the Wells Fargo ATMs and Redbox kiosk.
Additionally, two elections violations complaints have been filed by the Swamp Party against the Students Party: one for knocking on doors with a “No Soliciting” sign clearly posted and another for distributing a flier with language that was not approved by the supervisor of elections.
Elections Commission chairwoman Brianne Lewis issued a cease-and-desist order for both violations.
Both complaints will be heard Friday, she said.
A version of this story ran on page 1 on 10/2/2013 under the headline "First day of SG elections sees increased voter turnout"
