Despite it being Super Bowl Sunday, students dropped by the UF Reitz Union Grand Ballroom for the first day of qualifying and slating for Spring 2015 elections.
Qualifying and slating will continue today from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
In order to qualify, students must show their Gator 1 Card and give their total credit count. After a student qualifies for a seat, he or she can choose to run, which is called slating, with a political party, or run as an independent.
UF Supervisor of Elections Hans Rojas said more students slated this semester than last.
Rojas said 37 students qualified and slated on Sunday, with 18 students each slating with Access and Swamp parties, and one who slated as an independent.
According to Alligator archives, 11 students qualified on the first day of Fall 2014 slating, and last year about 60 students qualified on the first day of Spring 2014 slating.
“(We are) overall pleased with the performance of day one of qualifying and slatting,” Rojas said.
During Spring elections, students are elected based on their college or number of credit hours.
Students with one to 29 credits qualify as freshmen, students with 30 to 59 credits qualify as sophomores and students with more than 60 credits represent their colleges.
The amount of seats a college receives is based off population.
Swamp Party President and spokesman Ricky Salabarria wrote in an email that he was thrilled with the students who slated with Swamp Party.
“We are looking forward to the next two days of slating and meeting more students with a passion to deliver the results our Student body deserves,” he said.
Access Party and Swamp Party will notify candidates that have been selected to run with the respective parties by Wednesday.
Access Party campaign manager Michael Christ said he felt the candidates’ ideas were similar to the ideologies of the party.
“We’re looking for people that are qualified, that have the passion, have the ideas to make Student Government representative of all the students on campus,” Christ said.
He said the party was encouraged by the amount of people who came out to run with them.
“We’re a new party, but we’re very excited about the response we’ve gotten,” he said, adding that he thinks the party will exceed expectations.
Elections will take place Feb. 24 and Feb. 25 from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 2/2/2015 under the headline “Fewer slate for Spring elections on day one than in 2014"]
