Student Association

Student Association elections begin Monday

Colin Davy | Asst. Photo Editor

Students will be able to vote for candidates on MySlice in a process similar to past elections.

The first candidates to announce their intention to run for Student Association president and vice president declared their candidacy at the end of March, but the SA official in charge of elections has been preparing for this week’s SA election for months.

“I’ve been working on elections since I got into this role in January,” said Janine Bogris, chair of SA’s Board of Elections and Membership. Even before petitions for candidacy were released in February, Bogris was setting up the election timeline and planning how the election would be organized.

Elections for SA president, vice president, comptroller and assembly representatives begin Monday and will run through Thursday. Syracuse University students James Franco and Tyler Rossi are on the ballot for president of the 61st Legislative Session.

Students will be able to vote for candidates on MySlice in a process similar to past elections. Presidential, vice presidential and comptroller candidates are voted on by the entire student body, while assembly representatives are voted on by students in the candidate’s home college, according to the SA bylaws.

Because candidates are listed on MySlice in alphabetical order, Bogris said candidates at the top of the list alphabetically tend to get more votes. This year, she said she tried to work with MySlice officials to randomize the placement of names on the ballot, but those efforts were unsuccessful.



“None of the assembly seats are contested as of right now, so it’s not as major of an issue,” Bogris said.

But with contested elections for the president, vice president and comptroller positions, Bogris said she would have preferred to see the ballot randomized.

Franco’s and Rossi’s picks for vice president — Angie Pati and Roy Tin, respectively — appear on the same ticket. That means that students vote for president and vice president as a pair, instead of individually.

SA’s Bylaw Review Committee is considering separating presidential and vice presidential candidates on separate tickets for future elections, but Bogris said that idea has not been solidified yet.

Currently, no write-in candidates are running for office, Bogris said. Write-in candidates can declare their intent to run for office at any time, but their names do not appear on the MySlice ballot. Students must manually type out a candidate’s name to vote for them.

During election week, Bogris receives emails three times a day giving her updates on how the voting is going. She can see the percentage of the student body that has casted votes and the breakdown of that data by home college and school year, she said.

The largest spikes in votes received tend to occur during the hours just after voting begins and after the SA president sends a campus-wide email about the elections, Bogris said.

Elections run for four days each year, but if at least 10 percent of the student body has not voted by the fourth day, elections are extended an additional day, according to the bylaws.

Last year, 29 percent of the student body voted in the SA election — the second highest voter turnout in SU history, Bogris said. She said she wants to top that number this year.

“I’m just hoping the overall trend of more political activity … will transition into student body elections,” Bogris said. The percentage of students that participate in SA elections is usually similar to the percentage of people that participate in local, state and federal elections, she added.

Bogris said she has been telling SA members and candidates to encourage students to participate in the election. Candidates up for election have a say in determining funding for student organizations, hiring upper level university officials and organizing initiatives that impact students, she said.

“I don’t think students realize how much happens within (SA),” Bogris said.





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