Elections, elections, elections!
With an astounding 2,280 ballots over the last two days, Binghamton University students showed how important Student Association elections are to them. According to elections chair Mary Leonardo, there were approximately 1,000 more votes this year compared to last year’s numbers.
Voters came to the polls for all different reasons. Senior James Meehan, an industrial engineering major, said he voted to support his friend.
Vice president for Academic Affairs candidate Shaun Hiller and presidential candidates Ah-Hil Kim and Jonathan LaSala brought their campaigns into Lecture Hall yesterday and Wednesday in an effort to reach as many students as possible.
For some students, this changed their minds on who to vote for; for others, it gave them incentive to vote.
“I’d never heard of any of these people ever before they came,” Jackie Libertiny, an undeclared freshman, said. “Afterward, I decided to go out and vote.”
Around 3 p.m. yesterday, students manning the Dickinson Community voting booth said they had seen 15 to 16 people per hour. Newing College was seeing similar numbers.
Other students said they abstained from voting because they didn’t care, didn’t have the time or didn’t pay attention to any of the campaigns.
Ashley Cahill, an undeclared freshman, decided not to vote because she thought it was just like high school.
“It’s a popularity contest and a resume booster, which is fine, but I don’t want to be a part of it,” Cahill said.
Yesterday afternoon, presidential candidate Adam Amit, a junior philosophy, politics and law major, said he was still feeling confident about his campaign and possible victory.
“I hope all the hard work during the campaign pays off,” Amit said.
VPAA candidate Shaun Hiller, a sophomore history and anthropological perspectives major, said David Lundgren, another VPAA candidate, is running because he wants his opinions to be heard. Hiller said he thought that should be respected.
Hiller said he believes students need to be more aware of what’s going on in the SA and he is determined to work with students to accomplish this.
There were numerous issues with voting this year.
According to Leonardo, Dickinson did not have voters sign next to their name and instead crossed each person’s name off after they voted. As of right now, the Dickinson votes will be counted, with the assurance that there will be grievances filed.
In Mountainview College students signed on the left, right and on both sides next to their names on the ballots. Similar to the Dickinson situation, the votes will be counted for now with the probability of grievances being filed later, Leonardo said.