Juniors Alex Pearlman and Marquis Harrison were unofficially named winners of the 2006-07 Students’ Association Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections last night as poles closed.
“I am very proud of Marquis and myself and the people who rallied their support behind us,” Pearlman said. “We wanted to mobilize people who never voted before. We learned that freshmen are voting for the first time and some seniors are voting for the first time. We have increased minority voter turn out and participation by Greeks. All this is due to the fact that we reached out personally, not by signs, posters or banners but through individual contact and through word of mouth.”
While not as high as last year, voter turnout was still above expectations, according to Elections Committee Chair and junior Brian Clancy. 1,563 students voted online. Paper ballots have not yet been tallied.
Now that the election is over, the winning pair is looking forward to getting started on their goals.
“As the Vice-President I will be the chief communication officer between student groups, student government and the SA President,” Harrison said. “My role will be to first help groups establish communication with student government. I am committed to going to at least one general interest meeting for as many student groups as possible.”
The Elections Committee unofficially determined that Pearlman and Harrison won 639 votes, junior Feisal Adan and sophomore Daniel Fisher received 313 votes, and junior Michael Bozzella and sophomore Hannah Geswein collected 277 votes.
The results come after a campaign period plagued with challenges including multiple campaign violations by the winning ticket that resulted in sanctions levied against them by the Elections Committee. The sanctions were followed by appeals from both sides to the Elections Committee and the All-Campus Judicial Council as the Adan-Fisher and Bozzella-Geswien camps urged for harsher penalties while Pearlman and Harrison argued their innocence.
Bozzella, who will return to student government as a representative to the 2006 Class Council, was bothered by the excessive controversy.
“I am honestly sorry to see all of the drama that went into the elections process and in hindsight I realize things could have been handled a lot better than they were,” Bozzella said while remaining positive about the future of student government. “I know Alex and Marquis will do an absolutely amazing job.”
Adan echoed this sentiment.
“Hopefully we can take it as politics and not take it too personally,” Adan said. “Alex and Marquis will do well for the school. I am really proud of them. They are good people. I have much respect for everybody that took part election. The campaign was crazy but politics is politics.”
Geswein, who will continue her work on the Senate, was pleased with her campaign despite the challenges.
“Mike and I ran our campaign with honesty and integrity. That’s something we’re proud of. We wouldn’t have it any other way,” she said.
Geswein continued that she was pleased with the results of the parking poll, also on last night’s ballot. Students expressed their interest in favor of a tiered parking fee structure 518-366. While the results do not mean that system will be put into place, it does give the Senate a strong piece of evidence to present to administrators.
The election also elected new SA Senators and Class Council members.
Representing the class of 2008 on the Senate next year are sophomores Daniel Goldstein, Hannah Geswein and Ariel Gros-Werter.
Freshmen Hallie Cohn, Michael Furlani and Harrell Kirstein will be representing the class of 2009.
The election results for the class of 2007 and at-large Senate seats were too close to call and will be reviewed by the Elections Committee and Information Technology Services. ITS administered the online voting system.
Elected to serve on the 2006 Class Council are Mike Bozzella, Rachel Thibo, Alexander Pearlman, Elizabeth McDonald, Jason Buitrago, Theresa Guarrera, Rebecca Lyn Fronheiser and Jennie Fagen.
Next year’s junior Class Council will be comprised of Gregory Meditz, A J Grieco, Bobby Sanborn, Katie Matthews, Brian Poon, Ariel Gros-Werter, Emily Paret and Joseph Panza.
Serving on the sophomore Class Council will be Yorda Yenenh, Mustafa Rehmani, Tyler Socash, Kazuki Sakamoto, Janna Gewirtz, Mike Furlani, Nathan Danek and Mike Shea.
Results for professor of the year will be announced at the Undergraduate Research Exhibition on April 18 at noon in the Welles- Brown Room of Rush Rhees Library and will be followed by a reception.
All election results are unofficial. Detailed results are available at http://mail.rochester.edu/results.html. The Elections Committee has five days to determine their authenticity.Bruml can be reached at abruml@campustimes.org.
