SOS swept Student Senate elections.
The SOS ticket swept the Ohio University Student Senate elections.
Gabby Bacha was elected president. Jared Ohnsman was elected vice president and Hannah Clouser was elected treasurer.
Candidates on the SOS ticket won all but four of the total 34 seats.
“I’m in shock right now. It was really hard at first just trying to get this together," said President-elect Gabby Bacha. "It’s been a lot of planning, it’s been a lot of educating our senators, it’s been a lot of evaluating who’s best for the job, and having a lot of conversations where we ask people to believe in themselves and to believe in something bigger than themselves.”
The total number of votes, 3,170, fell just short of last year’s total, 3,561, even though students had twice the amount of time to cast their ballots. Student Senate’s general body passed a resolution to extend the voting window from 24 to 48 hours on November 12.
“Voter turnout was pretty good, I expected a little higher with more tickets because it actually dipped a little bit from last year," said Vice President for Student Affairs Ryan Lombardi. "A couple years ago they tried two days and it was the same deal.”
Students also had the option to cast a vote of no confidence in upper university administration and the Board of Trustees. Around 41 percent of students voted "no confidence" in upper administration. Around 45 percent voted "no confidence" in the Board of Trustees.
For both of the "no confidence" votes, around 18 percent voted that they "preferred not to answer."
Five tickets became four in the final week of the election season when the TIME ticket withdrew from the race for unknown reasons.
After TIME’s presidential candidate Keith Wilbur, current senior student trustee, was disqualified for early campaigning and campaigning without submitting a party declaration form, Marquis Maines stepped up to fill the ticket’s presidential void temporarily before officially withdrawing before the final BOE debate on April 9.
@mayganbeeler
mb076912@ohio.edu
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