Undergrads turn out, elect Senate reps

November 9, 2009 by Pashtana Usufzy 

Representatives elected with new paper ballot method

CSUN Senate candidates paced back and forth in front of the the Senate’s third floor office, anxiously awaiting the results of the latest election with friends and running mates.

Students voted in the members of the 40th Senate session Thursday, re-electing 14 incumbents and introducing 11 new candidates to office.

Polling stations placed across the campus and manned by volunteers may have drawn an increased number of students to vote, Senate president Victor Barragan said, even if they may have slowed things down.

“It was hard to get people to vote [before] because they had to go to the registration page and felt it was maybe too personal,” he said.

A complete set of statistics regarding the total number of ballots cast was not available.

CSUN representatives, including Barragan and student body president Adam Cronis, said they believe the number of votes cast increased from previous years.

“It took some time,” Cronis said, “but it was a very diligent process.”

Former university studies senator Mike Wong volunteered to “guard the door” in case senators attempted to enter the room where Barragan, elections director Vincent Lipari, two volunteers and members of the elections board sat counting votes.

“They’re making more work for themselves,” Lipari said, commenting on the more than two hour delay in getting the results posted on the CSUN and Office of Civic Engagement and Diversity doors.

Possible flaws in the voting system including the fact that some poll workers did not check identification did not worry Cronis.

“It just seemed more able to be more efficient,” he said.

Barragan, who volunteered to assist on the north side of campus by assisting sciences and engineering volunteers, said he felt that involvement from the student population depended a great deal on the different level of advertisement in the individual colleges.

“[Students] would read the bios,” he said of those who voted in the college of sciences, where he successfully ran the Senate for three years in a row before becoming a member of the executive board. “I was very surprised that they were doing that.”

He said he could remember his own experience in running and hoped the help the new senators adapt.

“On your first day, you’re excited,” he said. “Then on the second day, you’re like, ‘I don’t want to do this again.’”

Former business senator Ricardo Cornejo, who declined to run for a second term, stood for a few minutes in front of the CSUN office before the results were posted.

He said he hoped that the incoming senators would use their new positions as a stepping stone to do even more things for the university.

Cornejo said he believes this will help make the new senators even better representatives of UNLV students.

“You’re a senator, great,” he said. “Get involved in more than one position.