Four Student Government election contests garnered votes from 620 students Tuesday, down from more than 1,000 students last year, according to SG Commissioner of Elections Billy Wright.
Only four of the 14 colleges had more candidates up for election than SG Senate seats to fill, so students could only vote in four elections.
“The fall election is always quiet. This semester we saw lower turnout, not just among the voters, but among the candidates,” said Speaker of the Senate Brooksie Bonvillain.
Bonvillain said candidate numbers should increase next semester after the Senate recently changed its election regulations.
Harrison Breaud defeated Curtis Elmore by 35 votes for a full Senate seat for the E.J. Ourso College of Business.
The four Senate seats for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences were won by Marcus Alexander, Abbey Vaughn, David Jones and Aaron Caffarel. Roxana Murphy, the only other candidate, lost with 11.2 percent of the vote.
The two College of Science Senate seats were claimed by Scott Sullivan, who received 50 votes, and Lesli Roussel, who narrowly defeated Justin Terracciano by four votes.
The University Center for Freshman Year election received the most votes for its seven Senate seats. Ryan Ehrhardt, Hilary Soileau, Chas Kelly, Sarah Beth Theriot, Lane Pace, James Brandon Woolf and De Andre Beadle garnered enough votes to get seats. Ehrhardt led with 261 votes, and Soileau followed with 194 votes. Students were allowed to vote for as many candidates as there were Senate seats available.
Chris Brady and Zac Thriffiley, who were both disqualified, received 113 votes each. Brencia Berry received 61 votes.
“A lot of people didn’t campaign. I think 620 voted for four ballots isn’t that bad,” Wright said.
At the SG Senate meeting Wednesday, the Senate unanimously passed an executive order from President J Hudson that devotes 10 minutes at the beginning of every meeting of the executive, legislative and judicial branches to writing letters to state officials about the University’s budget problems.
“If we are going to ask students to write letters, we need to have written letters ourselves so we can say, ‘Hey look, I’ve written my letter. It took me 10 minutes. You should write one, too.'” Hudson said.
Hudson and Vice President Dani Borel also appealed to the members of both the executive and legislative branches to attend and disrupt the Board of Supervisors meeting Nov. 6 about the increase in the midyear cuts.
“Essentially, we’re going to filibuster their meeting, and we need your help,” Borel said.
Hudson and Borel also discussed plans for a rally at the State Capitol on Nov. 19, the day the Joint Budget Committee meets.
“If we are going to rally, we want to rally when people will be there,” Borel said. “These are the people who make the financial decisions and who will decide what our cuts are.”
The Senate voted to override a Hudson veto on a resolution it had passed asking for an audience with Gary Graham, director of the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation, to advocate for fees on visitor parking to be lifted after 4:30 p.m.
Hudson said he vetoed the bill because Graham told him and Borel the fee money from the visitor spots was being used to pay for the University’s forthcoming parking garage.
“Dani and myself felt it was more important for students to have a parking garage then not pay fines at night in visitor spots,” Hudson said.
 
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Contact Frederick Holl at [email protected]