Results from the on-campus stadium referendum vote expected today

Students voted on whether or not they support a $6-$9 per credit hour fee to fund an on-campus stadium. ORACLE FILE PHOTO

Student Government (SG) midterm voting came to an end yesterday and the results are expected to be announced today.

SG Supervisor of Elections Sebastian Leon told The Oracle in an email that vote counts were not finalized last night due to difficulties, but they will be announced this morning.

Arguably the most popular item on the ballot was the on-campus stadium referendum which asked students whether they were for or against paying a $6 to $9 per-credit-hour fee to help finance the stadium.

However, even if students vote in favor, it will not automatically begin the process of adding an extra student fee. The goal of the referendum is to gather student feedback, which SG will then use to pitch the fee to the Board of Trustees (BOT).

SG Sen. Yusuf Fattah said in an interview with The Oracle last week that if voters do give a “stamp of approval,” SG will start the process of attempting to add the fee.

“We’re going to have everything on our side logistically done and then we can go to the BOT and (Board of Governors) BOG,” Fattah said. “We can go to everyone we need to in order to get that fee approved because at the end of the day, we’re not going to charge students this money if we don’t have a concrete plan.”

If a fee is approved by BOT, it must then go to the BOG and then it eventually must be approved or denied by the Florida governor.

Aside from this referendum, students voted on a new batch of senators to represent their colleges.

Students were able to utilize the voting system that debuted last semester, Voatz, which allows them to vote using a QR code that was emailed to them prior to elections. Students could vote either in-person or online.