Members of the College of William and Mary’s classes of 2011 and 2014 will vote Thursday for their class representatives in the Student Assembly after weeks of campaigning.
Members of the class of 2011 will vote for a single open senate seat. Three students are running to fill the seat, left open in the absence of Josh Karp ’11, who resigned this past summer.
Twenty-three freshmen are vying for nine open seats in the SA, including an unopposed secretary race and a six-way race for president. Despite this large number of candidates, however, no run-off election will be held. According to SA election rules, whichever candidate wins a majority of the votes is awarded the seat.
To help guide prospective freshman candidates through the campaign and election process, the SA utilized the Special Elections Commission. This commission is formed for every election, although it was specifically crafted for the current election to assist freshman candidates with the potentially confusing process of running for office, as well as to monitor both the freshman and senior class elections.
This commission, appointed by SA president Chrissy Scott ’11 and composed of Curt Mills ’13, David Murphy ’12, Betty Jeanne Manning ’11, Jill Olzewski ’12 and Michael Douglass ’11, educated the candidates on campaign rules and regulations, in addition to holding information sessions on the process of campaigning and responsibilities of each office.
The commission also held candidate meet-and-greet events in freshman halls, events designed to help freshmen voters better know their prospective representatives.
Murphy, upon meeting the candidates, said he was impressed by the freshmen who were running for office, and not worried about the outcome of the election.
“I think no matter who is elected, all of the candidates involved seem extremely motivated and would do a good job and [are] doing it for the right reasons,” he said
During last year’s freshmen election cycle, the SA was forced to delay the voting process by one week due to low turnout of candidacy deglarations by the deadline. The bill, titled the Fall 2009 Elections Delay Act, allowed other student body members an extra week to announce their intention to run for the SA.
Scott also urged freshmen to make a strong showing Thursday.
“Vote, make sure all of your friends vote, and read the ballot statements,” she said.
2010 Student Assembly candidates
President
Chandler Crenshaw
Virginia Lee
Tamara Middleton
Sami Mirimiri
Jonathan “Jay” Miutz
Jake Schneider
VP Advocacy
Alexandra “Alex” Comerford
Raquel “Alex” Phillips
Benjamin Reynolds
Iman Shakeri
VP Social Affairs
Megan McCarthy
Kelly Stosch
Treasurer
Melissa Alim
John Andrianos
Jackson “Jack” Crum
Brett Prestia
Secretary
Taylor Feenstra
Senator
Austen Brower
Matthew Giattino
Chase Koontz
David “Dallen” McNerney
Matthew Paganussi
David Wasserstein
2011 Senator
Gregory “Bert” Mueller
Shepherd “Shep” Walker
David Witkowsky
