Elections for the 2014 – 2015 Associated Student Government closed on April 25. 1,040 students turned out to vote for 10 of the 11ASG as well as a constitutional amendment. The election results were announced on April 28, yielding the approval of the constitutional amendment creating a vice president of external legislative affairs as well as 10 new ASG elects.
The remaining ASG position, the associate justice of internal affairs, is set to be hired by May 9. “The bylaws state that if a position is left vacant, the election committee becomes a hiring committee, which is the process we’re going through right now,” said Komalpreet Sahato, ASG chief justice.
A majority of the voting occurred at the election kickoff event and on the first day. “Compared to last year, we had way more people vote during the barbeque, head and shoulders, a good two or three hundred more,” said Brandon Lueken, program coordinator. Of the 1,040 total votes, 873 were cast on day one representing approximately 87% of ballots. “We had single digits one of the days, not a lot of votes [were cast] after that,” said Lueken. “I think that could have been improved, more students voting and more time beforehand … to educate students would have been nice, but we’ll see how it goes.”
“There’s always room for improvement in anything that is done, said Sahato. “Hopefullywhatever I learned from this experience I can pass on to the next chief justice and the next judicial board.”
Now that elections are over, training begins both formally and informally. “We are planning on doing some job shadowing, but I’m working on making that pretty specific about what we want [as learning outcomes],” said Lueken. “In previous years, we kind of gave them, [the current ASG], free reign and that was so variable. Some people learned a lot, some people didn’t.”
Additionally, ASG is planned to hold a meet and greet to provide an opportunity for people to meet the new ASG as well as have ASG meet the Student Programs staff and any other relevant parties. Over the summer, ASG elects are required to attend a series of formal trainings as well as the annual Student Programs event Camp Casey.
The ASG elects will officially take office on July 1, 2014.