Blaufuss, Schulte win ASG elections

Chris Hunter / The Bulletin

Senior crime and delinquency major Angela Blaufuss hugs senior microbial and cellular biology major Sarah Schulte after seeing the results of the ASG election yesterday near the CSI office. Blaufuss and Schulte were elected president and vice president of the student body for the 2008-2009 school year.

Angela Blaufuss and Sarah Schulte were announced as the next President and Vice President of Associated Student Government on Wednesday. Students cast votes in person and via Blackboard this week to determine the winners.

“I would say we’re both thrilled, because now we have the opportunity to give something back to the students,” Blaufuss said.

Campaigning and debates from both pairs of candidates built up to this week. Students voted from 12:01 a.m. Monday morning to 4 p.m. Wednesday, and results soon followed. A small crowd awaited the posted results once votes had been tallied at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Blaufuss, senior crime and delinquency studies major, and Schulte, senior microbial and cellular biology major, won the presidency and vice presidency with 288 votes. Taylor Relph, senior communication and public relations major, and Lisa Stephenson, senior biology major, received 188 votes.

“To see all of our work finally come to something, to realize that the students wanted to do what we wanted to do, is probably the greatest thing,” Schulte said.

Both Blaufuss and Schulte were very excited by the news, and students and supporters present for the results also congratulated the winners.

Many students cast votes in the Memorial Union. Jaclyn Lane, sophomore business administration major, was one of the workers at the voting table in the Union. “A lot of people who I’ve talked to or asked have already voted,” Lane said. “I’m pretty excited about that.”

Students stopped by to cast their votes on computers, taking less than two minutes each to complete the ballot. Each voter was given a free soda as thanks for participating in the election.

Though elections have previously been held both online and in the Memorial Union, this was the first year ASG widely and actively promoted the election online. After a few difficulties, ASG sent specific instructions to each student about how to vote online.

Michelle McHenry, junior elementary education major and election commissioner, reflected on the challenges. “We started out with some minor technical difficulties, but we got right back on track,”

By sending each student the invitation and instructions to vote, ASG hoped to increase upon last year’s voter turnout, which was roughly seven percent of students. The increased awareness that students could vote online seemed a likely way to get more voters.

Current ASG vice president Elissa Hadley, junior English education major, felt that last year’s voter turnout could have benefited from such publicity. “This is the first time every student was sent something,” Hadley said. Most students didn’t know, so most students didn’t vote.”

Despite the increased publicity and access, however, only 483 voters, or roughly eight percent, of students cast votes in the election. McHenry said that she hoped to see that number increase in the future.

The election also determined senators from each department.