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Slightly more than 21 percent of the University of Maine student body voted in Monday’s election, electing the new student body president and vice President. In the race for the presidency, senior Cortlynn Hepler lead the race with 36.5 % of the votes (633). His vice-president will be sophomore Justin Brown, who received 60.8% of the votes (1011).
But flaws within the FirstClass online voting system have prompted vice presidencial write-in candidate Dan O’Brien to challenge the election results.
Although O’Brien lost the vice presidential election to Brown, he is only challenging the presidential election.
According to Erik Black, chair of the Fair Elections Practice Committee, Student Records listed 8,032 eligible voters and 7,918 were able to utilize the FC voting system. The remaining 114 eligible voters either do not have a FC account or the information recieved from them regarding their social security number was not consistent with the social security number listed on their FC account.
O’Brien claims because the presidential election was lost by 99 votes, the 114 people who did not recieve the ballot on their FC desktop could have skewed the vote.
“Justin [Brown] would have won no matter what,” said O’Brien. “But in Rebecca Bode’s case she very well could have won.”
“There were some problems with icons not appearing,” said Black. “That’s why we established the alternate plan in case…the traditional voting in the student government center,” he said.
Black has scheduled a FEPC hearing for Friday at 2 p.m. – the same day the inaguration was set to take place.
O’Brien maintains that his request to FEPC for a hearing did not come about because he only recieved seven votes in the election.
But Black, along with others, are skeptical of O’Brien’s case against the election process, citing a lack of evidence.
“[O'Brien] has to convince people there was a problem so significant that it could have thrown the results, rendering the election invalid,” said Black.
“I personally disagree [with the contest],” said Matt Gagnon, current vice president of the student body. “There may be flaws in the system but he has to show material impact, which could be next to impossible. I think he’s just trying to poke holes in the voting system…trying to make a point,” Gagnon added.
“It’s probably going to come down to a lack of evidence,” said Black. “There’s no legal teeth there.”
Until O’Brien’s case is proven or dismissed on Friday, Hepler remains the president-elect.
During the race, Hepler focused on a variety of issues for his campaign, including student safety, parking and free legal help.
“My main goal is to increase student awareness on issues that affect our college experience, both on campus and off,” Hepler said during his campaign. “I feel that the student body was looking for someone who would be honest with them about what’s going on, keep them informed on decisions and plans of the university – keep them in the loop.”
A factor that Hepler attributes to his success was going out and meeting students and answering their questions. He said he will first focus on campus lighting during his term in office.
“Students are tired of the poor lighting and the dangers it creates – difficulty for night-time drivers to see students at road crossings, injury risks from walking down poorly lit sidewalks where there may be ice or other hazards, and the safety concerns associated with not being able to see other people approaching,” Hepler said. “Each year the university receives millions of dollars in grants and donations. I want to tap into those funding sources for campus lighting. If local businesses and alumni truly want to help out UMaine, then they will help out by making it a safer campus.”
Brown said students recognized his leadership skills and commitment to the job of vice president.
“I don’t want to make wild assumptions, but I’d guess that the students made the right choice by electing me to be their student body vice president, because they understand that this is a position that needs to be filled by someone with leadership experience and who has plenty of time to commit to the job,” Brown said. “In the upcoming year, I want to earn the students’ respect and make sure that they did choose the right candidate.”
Brown said that because he will not be graduating next year, it’s possible he will run for a second term.
“If I’ve done a good job, then being re-elected would be the ultimate vote of confidence in my mind, and I will spend the next year working towards that by tackling issues and getting stuff done,” Brown said.
Brown, who received more votes than any other candidate in the election, said he is humbled by the show of support.
“I am extremely fortunate to have such strong support from my friends, high school alumni, fellow senators, Greeks, residents, and Student Government colleagues. They were all key in my success and a tremendous help for me,” he said.
Among the issues Brown hopes to address in office are establishing a new legal services contract, continuing the Student Government Newspaper Program, and stressing to faculty the importance of having book orders in on time and finding textbooks that will be used more than one semester.
Runners-up in the campaign were as follows: In the Presidential race, Rebecca Bode came in second with 30.8 percent of the votes (534), Mike Mayo came in third with 27.7 percent (480), and 5 percent of those who voted (88) voted for a write-in. For vice president, Leif Bjelland received 34.5 percent of the votes (574), and Dan O’Brien, who was unofficially running as a write-in candidate, received 0.4 percent (7).
Also on the ballot was a referendum question asking for approval to make the position of vice president for Student Organizations a part of the executive budgetary committee. The referendum was approved with 79 percent approval (1,342 votes).
