All of the votes have been cast and tallied and the Student Government Association’s Senate election results have been announced to the student body.
A total of 1,638 University of Massachusetts students – approximately 8.5 percent of the student body – cast their votes in support of their Senators. A minimum of five percent of the student body (1,020 students) had to vote in order for the elections to qualify.
The elections were held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday in the Campus Center Concourse and in all dining halls.
“Thanks to a strong voter turnout, the SGA was able to run a single-day election for the first time in several years,” said SGA president Pavel Payano. “We are pleased with how efficiently the elections ran.”
There were 327 ballots from the Central District, 161 ballots from the Orchard Hill District, 97 ballots cast from the Northeast District, 51
ballots from the Sylvan District, 199 ballots from the Commuter District, 312 ballots from the Southwest North District, and 312 ballots from the Southwest South District. There were 25 ballots that were not included in the final tally because people failed to follow the directions and voted for more than one candidate.
The Central District was won by Timothy J. Mason (59 votes), Anna BuAbbud (44 votes), Ruth Thompson (37 votes), Ahmed Ilahi (33 votes), Victoria Cheng (32 votes), Danielle N. Burns (25 votes), Brandon Kelly (25 votes) and Daniel J. Wallace (25 votes).
The Southwest South District was won by Eugene Kim (73 votes), Jenn Kennedy (62 votes), Jnovan Williams (52 votes), Elizabeth Vargas (44 votes), Jad Chanin (40 votes), Armando Roman (30 votes), Karina Martinez (28 votes), Melissa Lockett (26 votes), Rosana Montilla (25 votes), Jeffery W. Homer (22 votes), Sean McNair (22 votes) and Danielle Albert (16 votes).
The Southwest North District winners include Peter Barros (55 votes), Michel F. Curtis (34 votes), Elvis Mendez (33 votes), Nicole Coker (32 votes), Steve Aman (27 votes), Addison Callahan (20 votes), Melisa Philatre (19 votes), Katie Stewart (15 votes) and Gysphell A. Morta (14 votes).
The Northeast District was won by Priyanka Pant (46 votes), Gregory Whitting (23 votes), Kelly Deegan (11 votes), Vincent Russo (9 votes) and Faheed Saleem (4 votes).
The Sylvan District was won by Elizabeth A. Sweeney (12 votes), Erin D. Larkin (11 votes), Robyn Ross (9 votes), Andrew Amara (7 votes) and Truptni Kasnyap (7 votes).
The Orchard Hill District winners include Devlin C. Man (54 votes), Mallary Khlmeyer (33 votes), Scott Johnson (22 votes), Gregory Collins (19 votes) and Carlos Calderon (17 votes).
The winners of the Commuter branch were Qingjin Shi (23 votes), Joel Menasha (19 votes), Emily Mullane (19 votes), Nate Kupel (14 votes), Ada Hays (13 votes), David Brown (12 votes), David Stryer (12 votes), Marcin Wolynski (11 votes), Sarah Stern O?Conner (9 votes), Shawn Robinson (8 votes), James Washburn (8 votes), Chris Canton (7 votes), Dennis P. Plato (6 votes), Eric Robbie (6 votes), Seho Lee (4 votes), Caiti O?Donnell (4 votes), Sara Wood (4 votes), Sandra Urquiza (4 votes), Christopher Caton (3 votes), Truptni Kasnyap (3 votes), Jamie Corliss (2 votes), Berkley Myers (2 votes), Davi Synnott (2 votes) and Brian Whalley (2 votes).
The first Senate meeting of the ?05-?06 academic year will be held
On Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Cape Cod Lounge. The Student Government Coordinating Council will ratify the elections tonight at 7 p.m. in the SGA office.
At the first senate meeting, the senate will vote to break a tie between four commuter candidates who all received 4 votes. Newly-sworn in senators will hear presentations by the four tied candidates, and they will vote for all but one of the students to enter senate.
The tied students are Brian Whalley, Davi Synnott, Berkley Myers, and Jamie Corliss. Corliss and Whalley both served in senate for the 2004-2005 year.
Speaker Sean Bliss says there are several changes that he is looking forward to which will improve the effectiveness of the Senate.
“By having our meetings in the Cape Cod Lounge the Senate will have an increased amount of visibility for the student body and hopefully it will encourage more students to get involved with the many issues on campus,” said Bliss.
Payano also plans to appoint a variety of presidential committees that will increase the impact senators will have on the quality of student life at UMass. He will announce the titles of those committees at this Wednesday’s senate meeting.
“We’re looking forward to a busy, productive year,” said Payano.
