SGA Elections results are in

The results of last week’s Student Government Association elections were released this weekend, verified by the SGA Executive Board and Department of Campus Life. The new senators met in the Dogwood Conference Room in the Student Activity Center to celebrate their victory, do some team training, and be officially sworn in.

Though the election was a success, the vote for sophomore senators ended in a tie between Jay Parker and Sydney McRee. Sophomore Evan Karanovich, one of last year’s senators and current run-off candidate, explained the situation.

“Due to a tie-vote and technical issues, SGA will be holding a runoff election on September 15, 2009 from 12:00 am till 11:59 pm,” Karanovich wrote on a Facebook message to his supporters. “The runoff will include all sophomore candidates.”

Senate seats are not ranked by votes, but instead are given based on the five candidates receiving the most votes. For this reason, all of the sophomores running will be included in the run-off. Those involved in the run-off are Evan Karanovich, Andrew Whittaker, Megan Moss, John Fajuke, Jay Parker, Syndey McRee, Jen Roth, Robianna Hill, Kyle Taylor, and Stephen Plunk.

The election was largely successful, with only a couple votes for fake candidates like “Edward Norton” and “Lawl Copter.”

1279 students voted this year – 19.36% of the 6606 eligible voters.

SGA president Zach Mullins reported that last year’s election results brought about “25 percent last year and almost 50 percent for Executive Board and the Mr. and Mrs. GCSU election last year.”

The rest of the results of the elections have been finalized.

The new freshmen senators are Ethan Holloman, Audry Smith, Stephen Hundley, Graham William, and Cody Allen. The junior senators are Claire Cantrell, Joel Buck, Christopher Thibodeaux, and Robert Aycock. The senior senators include Joel Graham, Patty Maguire, Sabrina Atkins, Billy Grace, and Matt Rogers.

The “At Large” Senators, a position which allows students of any grade to run for the position are Justin Reeves, Marcus Green, Lizz Stamm, Paul Danaj, and Josh Futch.

Out of all of the senatorial votes cast, Senior Joel Graham received the most votes with 444. Freshman Ethan Holloman followed Joel with 343 votes.

In addition to the votes for senate seats, both of the amendments to the SGA Constitution were passed by large margins. Amendment One changed the duties of the Attorney General, Justin Reeves. Amendment Two created two new standing committees – Appropriations and Campus Issues. It also specified an ad-hoc structure for committees if the chair deemed it appropriate.

SGA secretary and senior management information systems major David McLaughlin is hopeful for the upcoming year of senatorial activity.

“We are going to have a really strong Senate this year,” he said. “The retention rate for SGA is higher than it has ever been, which will help us broaden our service to the students at GCSU. With this group, we are sure to exceed all expectations.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 11 2009. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry