Massachusetts Daily Collegian

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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

Student Government Association election results

Sami Webber/Collegian

After three days of voting last week, results for the University of Massachusetts’ Student Government Association (SGA) elections were announced Sunday.

All three ballot referenda passed handily, with students throwing their support behind all three measures by a factor of more than two to one.

The first question asked students if they supported changing SGA Constitution language so that bills which had not been signed or vetoed would become Acts of the SGA. It passed by a tally of 1093 in favor to 290 opposed.

The second dealt with changing the statute of limitation on filing with the Student Judiciary from 90 to 30 days. It passed 1160 to 494.

The third question also pertained to Constitutional language. It proposed changing a clause of Article V of the SGA Constitution from reading “decide tie” to “decide tied,” and passed by a figure of 1533 to 153.

Most races for SGA Senate were not all that competitive, although several had tightly-contested outcomes.

In the Central race, four out of five candidates won seats. Zachary Jaymes Broughton won the most votes, with 132, followed by Evan James Pleasant, with 124, Andrew Eaton, with 117, and Benjamin Lees, with 115. Those four edged out Sean T. O’Connor.

North’s Senate race saw limited participation. Just two candidates, Edward Keefe and Patrick Curley, won spots on the SGA Senate. The two received three votes apiece, narrowly topping all other candidates, who received one or two.

Northeast’s race appears to have been something of a no-contest. Paola Ozuna led Northeast’s vote-getters with 138 students choosing him, while write-ins Joshua McDuffie and Nolan Wilds won seats with eight and seven votes, respectively.

Sylvan’s Senate race was closer. Candidates Nicholas DeChristopher and Rich Tsai won spots, receiving 33 and 26 votes apiece. The two topped Kris Kilpi, who took 13 votes.

Orchard Hill saw perhaps the stiffest electoral competition. 11 candidates fought for three seats, with Nick Barton leading the field, receiving 153 votes, followed by Stuart  Farber, with 124 and Balaj Rai with 104.

The Commuter race is mostly decided, with 16 candidates seated for 18 spots, and four others tied for two remaining positions. Of the commuters, Matthew Reilly led the way, winning 94 votes. He was followed by incumbent Dan Stratford, who received 85 votes, and then by Allison R. Sacks, who got 80 nods, Ellen Moorhouse, who received 78, Justin A. Thompson, who got 75 votes, Elle F. Rahilly, who took 74, Gregory MacDonough, who got 71, Alex Cidado, who had 70 votes, Michelle Sudan and Thor Tillberg each received 69 votes, Joshua Davidson took 68, William Cody took 59, Matthew Medney 52, and write-ins Nathan Lamb, who received 21 votes, Jane Getchell, who was given five votes, and Nathan Bierman, who received four votes.

The four remaining candidates Amanda Jusino, Ben Thompson, Tucker Raney and Cassia Covollo, each received three votes. SGA commissioner of elections Jitesh Khushalani said the current members of the Senate will vote on which two of those four will be seated soon.

Southwest North’s race saw five candidates gunning for four seats. Blaine Stillerman led the pack, winning 140 votes, with Juan Moreira following him at 123, Adam Baldarelli winning 120 and Daniela Sanchez also winning a spot with 102 votes. The four defeated Sarah Schultz, who received 60 votes.

The Southwest South race saw some competition, as eight candidates fought for six positions. Lindsay Vitale led the field, taking 215 votes. She was followed by Ben Johnson, who won 190, Bonnie Woods, who took 188, Hayley Mandeville, who won 166, Nicholas Julian, who took 158, and Tyler J. Read, who received 137 votes. Southwest South’s race saw the tightest margin of victory, as Read narrowly grabbed more votes than Jarred Rose, who received 136. The eighth candidate was Claire Reid Kiss.

The house cluster officer races were a bit more contentious, as some spots remain deadlocked and to be determined.

Washington cluster’s president will be George Perez, who ran unopposed and received 35 votes. Its vice president will be Ricardo Morales, who also ran without opposition and also took 35 votes. The cluster’s treasurer and secretary positions remain in limbo, as a slew of candidates in each race all received just one vote.

Pierpont-Moore’s president is Marc Boyd, who rousingly defeated Chris Davis and Greg Olson, receiving 114 votes to the latter two candidates’ one apiece. Ashley Prinz will be the cluster’s vice president, as she took 65 votes to Daniel Dovev’s 40, Jenkin Solanki’s nine and Greg Olson’s one. The cluster’s treasurer will be Noah Z. Lurie, who received 50 votes to Allison Avajo’s 31 and Tony Cecchini’s 28. Navid Nia, who won 109 votes to two other candidates’ one, will be Pierpont-Moore’s secretary.
John Quincy Adams’ cabinet will include Rebecca Ukaegbu as president, Yogini Patel at vice president, Cheng Zong at treasurer, and Alex Karkos at secretary. All four ran unopposed.

Grayson-Field’s new leadership is comprised of Amanda Dickinson, who heartily trounced Kevin Carnevale, as president, Brian Rucki as VP, Rebecca J Ellie at treasurer, and, in a tighter contest, Phil Sesay, who defeated Anthony Cuoco seven votes to six, as secretary.

Cance’s race saw reasonably substantive turnout. Alex Ledoux took the presidency by a vote of nearly two to one, topping Jaclyn Barzvi, 46 votes to 26 votes. Morgan Sax won the vice presidency, receiving 49 votes to Lauren Duffy’s four. Aaron Araujo won treasurer, defeating Hyeji Cho 48 votes to 24. Krista Coufos will serve as secretary, as she topped Duffy 49 to four.

Webster-Dickinson will be represented by Alfredo Mesiti as president, Lily Fitzgerald as VP, George Lee as treasurer, and Jennifer O’Brien as secretary.

The Crabtree-Mary Lyon-Knowlton cluster also limited competition. Alex David Shaffer will serve as president, Chloe Piccola will be vice president, Eric Koegler edged out Chelsea Hutchinson for treasurer, and Robert Donadio handily won the secretary spot.

Leach-Hamlin-Dwight saw extremely low turnout. Joseph Kalinowski won the presidency with 11 votes to Allysa Nadera’s two. Ediale Ikhariale will serve as VP, Nadera won the treasurer spot with two votes, and she also won the secretary spot, also with two votes.

Thatcher-Lewis-Johnson cluster also saw light participation. Laura Summers will be president, taking seven votes. Nesrin Sengul will be vice president, taking six nods, Katharine Sansbury will be treasurer, taking five votes to all other candidates’ one or two, and Dia Majumdar will be secretary.

The council race in James was not terribly fierce. Alina Bahlavouni will be president, Blake Foster will be vice president, and Jordan Schneider will be treasurer. No secretary candidates were listed.

Emerson, reflecting a trend in the house council races, also saw limited voting. Kristina Zoto won the presidency, receiving 23 votes, Russell Hochman won the vice presidency with two votes, and the treasurer race was still undetermined, with three candidates tied with one vote each.

Kennedy’s race saw Sandy Joseph win the presidency and the vice presidency, while no winners were indicated in the race for treasurer or secretary.

In Coolidge, Piro Cani won the presidency, Alexander Berry took the vice presidency, and Amanda Hemphill defeated Blaine Stillerman for the treasurer spot. The secretary race was ongoing, as two candidates, Amanda Hemphill and Andrew Czuczwa, each had two votes.

Melville-Thoreau’s race saw better turnout, though still little competition. Jennifer Kokotis won the presidency unopposed, Jared Antman took 84 votes for VP, Mitchell Lipman won 82 votes for treasurer, and Samantha Dubner defeated nine other candidates for the secretary spot.

Prince-Crampton’s council election also saw heartier participation than others. Alexandra Laczay pushed away a challenge from Ben Denmark, taking 42 votes to his 29. The race for VP was as close as any, as Amanda Shafii bested Albert Lee 33 votes to 30. The treasurer’s race was less contested, as Megan Colwell glided to victory with 57 votes. Cale J. McSweeney easily won the secretary seat.

Baker-Chadborne-Greenough’s race was more like the rest of campus. Emily Moreira easily won the presidency with 32 votes, Zahava Stern defeated a bevy of write-in candidates with eight votes, the race for treasurer was undecided, with seven candidates receiving one vote, and Elisa Ungaro won the secretary position.

Van Meter-Butterfield’s race was similarly uncontested. Matthew Criscuolo won 63 votes for president, Samuel Warton took 64 to win the vice presidency, Alexandra Case won seven votes for treasurer, and Sarah Arnell won eight nods for the secretary seat.

The race in Brett-Brooks saw almost unparalleled low turnout. Michael Shi will be president, receiving three votes to seven other candidates’ one. Lauren Ma won three votes for vice president, good enough to win, Donald Loch also took three votes to win the treasurer spot, and Johanna Brophy also took three votes for the secretary position.

Gorman-Wheeler had no presidential candidates, a strange element of an election with fairly sizeable participation. Michael Spahr won at vice president, Regina Moroso will be treasurer, and Emily Hajjar will serve as secretary.

Cashin had perhaps the strangest outcome. Just one candidate, Jeffrey Landry, entered any race. He won the presidency with one vote.

McNamara saw a similarly bizarre pattern. No candidates can be called winners there, as several candidates received one vote each in each election.

Brown cluster saw four candidates win unopposed. Gregory Porcaro will be president, Fredeline Thomson will be vice president, Courtney Blanken will be treasurer, and Arber Doci will be secretary.
In Patterson-Mackimmie, Kelly Ransom defeated Rahul Garg for the presidency. Lyndsey Davis won the VP spot unopposed, Amelia Feinstein edged Laurel Schmidt, 43 to 29, for treasurer, and Aymbre Paige and Feinstein tied for the secretary seat, receiving five votes each.

Khushalani, the elections commissioner, said this fall’s elections saw turnout twice as high as last fall semester’s. He attributed the spike in participation to the accessibility of online voting, as well as sending out emails encouraging participation and help from residence directors in communicating information about the elections to residents of the campus’ dormitories.

Sam Butterfield can be reached at [email protected].

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