The freshman class has made its first lasting mark on RPI, electing its student government leaders and representatives. Rules and Elections Chair Kim Conway ’06 said that the elections were a success: “The elections were unbelievable. Everything went the way it should have.”
There was a very close race for class president, the margin of which surprised both the RNE committee and the candidates. It came down to a two vote difference between the top three candidates. The winner for the class president position, David Drew, who won with 25.21 percent of the vote, said,” I did not expect the results to be so tight.”
The final results for the presidential race showed that Drew had 153 votes, Samantha Malanche 152 votes, Kevin Menear 151 votes, and Zubin Wadia 117 votes. Since the race was so close, a double-checked hand recount was performed and the results were consistent each time. Conway added, “Races like that show just how much of a difference one vote can make.”
Drew discussed some of his plans now that he had been elected. He said he would be looking to “get some input from fellow classmates … and make sure everyone is heard.”
The rest of the races were not as close. For class vice president, Stephanie La Berge won with 378 votes, or 62.2 percent, of votes cast. The four freshmen who were elected as Senators are Brian Zaik, Amy Moise, Ryan Anderson, and Timothy Sprock. The accompanying informational graphic has a more complete list of the races and the winners.
Total voter turnout from the freshman class was 49.51 percent. In total there were 74 invalid ballots, but 50 of them were voided at the site and fixed. The total number of invalid ballots was 24 and these contained invalid RIN numbers that the machine which tabulated the votes could not process. Overall, the number of invalid ballots this election yielded was about normal compared to other elections.
Conway explained, “I am very happy that my committee and our volunteers did such a good job keeping track of every ballot—if we lost one, it could have changed the outcome completely.” Polls closed at 7 pm and all the votes had been tabulated by 8:30 pm, leaving only the recounts for the position of President to be done.
The polling stations were open in the Commons and the DCC. The freshmen who walked passed either of the polling tables were bombarded with questions, “Are you a freshman?” and “Have you voted yet?” in order to encourage turnout.
Conway, along with the rest of the RNE committee, encouraged all those who ran for office to run again in the spring during GM Week elections. They also encouraged those who did not win to look into the Executive and Judicial boards, which manage the Union budget and student discipline on campus, respectively.
