About half as many students voted in Tuesday’s Student Association Senate elections as voted in 2005.
Elections commissioner Stuart Tirey said 822 students voted in the elections.
“I think the rain affected it, and I also thing that the lack of Union did,” SA Attorney General Aaron Rice said.
Although the SA anticipated most students voting in Perry Cafeteria, about half ended up voting at the other polling place, Mitchell Memorial Library, he added.
Also, technical difficulties with the computer program that arose because classification has in the past only been a factor in Homecoming elections meant some people voted for the wrong class in the class council elections, Rice said. SA officials calculated that the mistake could have changed the results of some elections, invalidating the election, he said.
“It was a tough spot to be in, but the guiding principle behind the whole situation was, what is the right thing to do?” he said.
New class council elections will take place Thursday, he said.
The first Senate meeting will be Thursday at 7 p.m. on the club level of Davis Wade Stadium after SA President JR Love gives the State of the SA address, SA Vice President Lee Weiskopf said.
Sophomore international business major W.C. McClendon said he feels awesome about being elected to represent Creswell Hall because it’s an opportunity for him to be part of something bigger.
Although committees have not yet been assigned, he said he hopes he can be involved in appropriations. “A lot of clubs have a lot of things they want to do, but they’re financially stuck and they can’t do the things they want,” he said.
“Just any kind of solutions that the students come up with over the years, I hope to be able to help them with anything like that,” he added.
McClendon and the other senators will a retreat Sunday afternoon at the Hunter Henry Center, Weiskopf said.
“The main purpose of it is kind of like an orientation for the senators. They’re going to go over the constitutional tasks that are required for them,” he said.
The senators will also learn about parliamentary procedure and how to write legislation, he added.
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