Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

SGA election results ratified Monday night

(Christina Yacono/Daily Collegian)
(Christina Yacono/Daily Collegian)

The Student Government Association met Monday night to ratify the election results of the presidential, vice presidential and student trustee positions.

Chancellor of Elections Divya Kirti presented voter turnout results, complaints and the different steps that were taken by the elections commission for this year’s elections.

Kirti said there were two meet-and-greets with the candidates during Late Night at Berk and Late Night at Worcester. Although the voting percentage stood at 15.38 percent for the presidential/vice presidential election and 12.84 percent for the student trustee position, Kirti said she felt this year’s commission did well in terms of trying to expand its horizons with outreach to students.

In terms of how many people turned out to vote, Kirti said, “It was disappointing to see it not be a higher number.” But she added that the percentage is considered average compared to years past.

Kirti also addressed the election complaints that were brought against various tickets and candidates. Eight of these complaints were issued during the election, while two more were added over spring break.

Eight of the 10 complaints did not have enough evidence or information to license a warning, though two of them resulted in a warning of the Barrett/Barbosa and the Kelly/Gay tickets. This was due to a complaint issued by presidential candidate Rocco Giordano that multiple flyers of both tickets were spotted in public spaces, which was in violation of the Residence Hall Solicitation campaign law.

Speaker of the Senate Sïonan Barrett and Chantal Lima Barbosa won the presidential/vice presidential election with 1,370 votes and Emily O’Neil won the student trustee election with 1,464 votes.

All three of the ballot questions that were raised passed.

Catherine Ferris can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Ca_Ferris2.

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