As campaigning for the Undergraduate Student Government election in Tempe continues, the two remaining presidential candidates said they are talking with students to get the word out about voting and keeping the same platforms.
Presidential candidates Brendan O’Kelly and Christina Rocks will compete in the runoff. Both said they expected the election to result in a runoff, because there were five tickets running. A runoff occurs when no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote in the initial election.
“In the past, there has been a runoff when [there were many tickets],” said O’Kelly, a history and political science junior. “But at the same time [my ticket was] confident that we would make it, and I’m glad we did.”
Rocks said she expected a runoff because of the low number of students who vote each year.
“Turnout for student-government elections isn’t very large at ASU, so while we worked really hard to attempt to try to get a majority, it’s essentially
impossible when there are that many tickets,” said Rocks, a history junior.
About 700 more students than last year voted in this year’s USG election in Tempe, and the total number of voters was 3,619, said Michelle Gutierrez, director of ASASU Elections, in an e-mail. The ASASU elections office’s goal was to get 6,000 students to vote, she said.
“We can still reach this goal during the runoff elections,” Gutierrez said.
Both tickets said they are sticking with their platforms and using the time before the second election to continue campaigning.
“We plan on keeping the same platform and keeping our message,” O’Kelly said. “We don’t want to change anything based on the successes or failures of other candidates.”
The O’Kelly ticket, which includes O’Kelly, Rudi O’Keefe-Zelman and Chris Fennessey, is spending time before the runoff to meet and interact with as many students as possible, O’Kelly said.
“It’s not only talking to people on campus,” he said. “It’s going to clubs and organizations that we haven’t been to yet, and hopefully getting students who didn’t vote the first time to vote.”
O’Kelly said he hopes when students vote, they’ll remember his ticket’s ideals — solutions to student problems and smart allocation of student fees.
“We have real solutions,” O’Kelly said. “We’re talking about getting the most out of your money.”
Rocks said her ticket, including Rocks, Jason Donofrio and Athena Salman, is calling attention to its three main points before the runoff election.
“[Our platform’s] three main pillars are affordability, accountability and campus community,” Rocks said. “Those are three things that we’re incredibly dedicated to.”
Although the candidates from both tickets focus on different topics, they agree it’s important to get students to vote.
“Student government is in control of [student-fee] money and [students] need to make sure that the people in student government are confident,” O’Kelly said.
Rocks agreed and said that if more students voted, their voice would be much stronger.
“No matter who you vote for, if not a lot of people vote, then student government isn’t legitimate,” Rocks said. “And if student government isn’t legitimate, then the voice of the students is completely weakened.”
Voting for the runoff will begin at midnight Tuesday and end at 11:59 p.m. Students can vote by visiting asasu.net/elections and signing into myASU.
Reach the reporter at abigail.gilmore@asu.edu.
