A record number of freshmen voted and participated in the Class of 2012 Students’ Association and Class Council elections.
In this year’s election, 38 students ran for Class Council and nine for the SA Senate.
The unofficial results revealed the winners last night at 10 p.m. on The Hive website. The results counted freshmen Dan Cohn, Sneha Rath, Megan Dewitt and Harry Brookstein as the top four candidates with the most votes for the SA Senate.
The vote breakdown was 310 votes for Cohn, 225 for Rath, 214 for Dewitt and 203 for Brookstein.
The eight students chosen for Freshman Class Council were Scott Strenger, Annamarie Spielmann, Matt Lavigueur, Trey Socash, Eric Meyer, Jennifer Moreno, Elise Parmentier and Lucas Piazza, each with 179, 179, 173, 155, 153, 146, 141 and 126 votes, respectively.
In total, 1628 votes were cast in the Class of 2012 Senate elections and 3304 were cast in the Class Council election. According to Associate Director of Wilson Commons Student Activities Laura Ballou, the class’ total votes outnumbered previous years.
A majority of the class participated, as compared to the more common 20 to 30 percent participation rate in older classes.
‘I feel like that just says wonders about the first year,” Ballou said.
Platforms for the SA Senate candidates were available online, though some candidates opted to not submit a platform. Some appealed to their experience in leadership roles previously, such as Rath and DeWitt, who both were in leadership roles in high school.
Others noted their positions on the issues, promising the student body that they would do their best to represent their concerns in various areas.
The candidates used a variety of techniques to convince the class of 2012 that they would be best at representing their class. Several students chalked the sidewalks and advertising using balloons.
Candidates for the Class Council elections also posted platforms. Several pieces emhasized the candidates’ experience, merit as leaders and school spirit.
A group of eight candidates running for Class Council worked together as part of a group called the ‘Rochester Spirit Ticket.”
The Rochester Spirit Ticket consisted of Eric Meyer, Katie Dean, Jared Suresky, Dontae Mears, Kaily Abbot, Adrienne Battaglia, Chris Schmitt and Emily DaSilva.
The group set up a Web site at http://www.rochesterspirit.com and on Facebook in order to promote their group’s platforms and experiences.
The candidates compiled a short video in which several freshmen participated.
Each of the candidates’ platforms also stated their membership on the Rochester Spirit Ticket at the top. Only one member of the group, Eric Meyer, was elected to office.
Candidates expressed their excitement in their platforms. Scott Strenger, who won 179 votes for Freshman Class Council, stated in his platform, ‘I will help create class unity by organizing exciting events such as a Rock, Papers, Scissors tournament, a 2012 Scavenger Hunt, a Battle of the Birthday Months and a 2012 Bonfire complete with entertainment and s’mores! I believe we are entitled to the very best and I will fight to get as many free 2012 giveaways as possible.”
There was one minor violation of election rules during this season’s campaign, according to SA Senator, elections chairperson and senior Alvin Lomibao.
‘One candidate was found in violation of the rule prohibiting harassment of individuals to vote, which, under our interpretation, included writing on personal white boards in residence halls,” Lomibao said.
Lomibao explained that the candidate was asked to erase the offending material. The candidate complied and the issue was dropped.
The candidate’s actions were in violation of the SA Senate election rules, which state that,
‘Candidates may not harass people in any way in order to get them to vote.”
Harassment falls under a broad category including sliding items under, knocking on and attaching flyers to residence hall doors.
Other than the one incident, there had been no other incidents of election infractions.
Carter is a member of the class of 2012.
