Students hoping to register with a Student Government political party had their last chance Tuesday.
After three days of interviews, a total of 197 students registered for Spring elections, with 188 registering with Impact Party, eight with Progress Party and one student as independent, wrote UF Supervisor of Elections Eric Hobbs in an email.
In Spring 2016, 460 students registered with Impact, and 100 registered with Access Party, according to Alligator archives.
Kevin Rivera, a 19-year-old UF business administration sophomore and former Access senator, said he walked into the Reitz Union with the intention of running as an independent candidate but was amazed to find Progress Party as an option.
“I think that Access had a lot of good intentions, but it was a movement that arose out of anger and distrust for ‘The System,’ whereas Progress just wants to bring students together who want to make a change,” said Rivera, who wants to run for the business administration Student Senate seat.
Julia Harrison, 20, chose to run with Impact for a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences seat to increase funding for the college.
The UF history sophomore said the party follows through with their promises.
“CLAS is the largest college at the university, and I think that increasing the support for research and operations is important for the university as a whole,” she said.
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