SG midterm election without glitches, unofficial results announced
Unofficial results for the Student Government (SG) Senate midterm election were announced Wednesday night.
It marked the first election in which candidates didn’t need a petition with 50 signatures to be placed on the ballot, as well as one of the first without glitches.
Candidates competed for seven seats in the College of Arts and Sciences, one seat in the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences, two seats in the College of Education, two seats in the College of Medicine, two seats in the College of Nursing and one seat in the College of the Arts.
Supervisor of Elections James Bodden said more than 40 candidates ran for election, yet no candidates ran for College of the Arts.
Senators elected to the College of Arts and Sciences are Brandon Cook, Maria Garcia, James Lewis, Ramy Mitwalli, Ibrahim Shamim and Corey Wilson. College of Behavioral and Community Sciences Senate-elect is Sarah Greenberg. Senators elected to the College of Education are Taylor Ashby and Karen Keenan. College of Medicine election winners are Melody Bernstein and Alexandra Printz. Danielle Steele and Kyra Waller won the seats in the College of Nursing.
Bodden said the results will be certified in the next few days by the Election Rules Committee. The committee looks for unusual voting patterns such as missing votes and double voting, he said.
Senate President Khalid Hassouneh said the elected senators take office Oct. 25, once certified.
Bodden said this was the first time in his three years involved with SG elections that there were no technological glitches.
“(Blackboard) improved the interface and it was great,” he said. “It was smooth and it never slowed down.”
Voting started Tuesday and ended Wednesday at 8 p.m., with unofficial results declared at about 8:20 p.m.
A record 2,347 students participated in the midterm elections, surpassing last year’s total of 1,300 on the first day of voting.
Also on the ballot was a referendum by Students for a Democratic Society, which asked students if they supported the repeal of the 15 percent tuition hike implemented at USF this fall. The tuition increase came after budget cuts led all 11 universities in the State University System to raise tuition by 15 percent.
The measure, which was non-binding and meant merely for statistical evidence of student opinion on the tuition increase, passed with 81 percent of voters in support of repealing the tuition hike.
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