More than 10 University of Massachusetts students seem to have secured Amherst Town Meeting seats.
According to unofficial results from Tuesday’s town election, of the 83 open Town Meeting spots, 11 were claimed by UMass students.
Among the students who appear to have won seats is Student Government Association President Akshay Kapoor and Speaker of the Senate Hayley Mandeville, who would represent Precinct 4. Washington Hall resident Brandon Graham also won a seat in Precinct 4. The three students received the least number of votes in the precinct, but since the race was uncontested everyone on the ballot earned a spot at Town Meeting.
This was a theme of the elections for students. In uncontested races, students came in with the lowest percentages of votes. In races where students could lose, they lost.
The one known exception was off-campus student Ritika Bhakhri, who earned 8.62 percent of the vote in Precinct 1, giving her the second-lowest votes of the elected officials in her precinct.
Other students who appear to have picked up positions include Orchard Hill residents Patrick Sadlon of Webster Hall and Marcus Chiaretto of Field Hall in Precinct 2 as well as Rocco Giordano of Mary Lyon Hall, Nathan Turowsky of Lewis Hall, Gabriel Schmitt of Knowlton Hall and Julian Poplawski of Brown Hall in Precinct 3. Renee Barouxis of Brett Hall beat out her sole competitor to earn her seat in Precinct 6.
In Precinct 10, Willis Chen of Prince Hall and Frank Jackson of John Adams Hall both lost. Off-campus students Garrett Gowen and Sean O’Connor also lost the challenged race. In Precinct 1, Matthew Fortune of Webster Wall also lost.
Turnout in this year’s election was low. The Daily Hampshire Gazette reported that of the 20,341 registered voters, only 1,342 showed up to vote.
Larry Kelley • Apr 10, 2013 at 12:50 pm
Getting elected was easy. Now comes the hard part: showing up. http://onlyintherepublicofamherst.blogspot.com/2013/04/scarlet-letters.html