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With the unofficial results counted, Brigham McNaughton and Aaron Sterling can prepare for presidency and vice presidency, respectively, of the Student Government after Monday’s elections.
With 53.2 percent of the votes, McNaughton will go from the office of the vice president to the president. Sterling, the outgoing president of the Off-Campus Board, won the vice presidency with 44.2 percent of the votes. Technically, the results are still unofficial. If everything stays on schedule, complaints can be filed and heard for one week. The results should be notarized and made official by Dec. 13 if no issues come up, according to Sterling.
Similar to last year’s election, the tickets of running mates were divided when the results came in. McNaughton’s running mate William Beaudoin came in second out of the three vice presidential candidates with 34.5 percent of the votes. Adam Kirkland, Sterling’s running mate, lost with 46.8 percent of the votes. Nathanael Saint-Cyr ran alone and received 21.3 percent of the votes for vice presidency.
All the opponents applauded McNaughton and Sterling on their wins.
“I would like to congratulate Brigham McNaughton on his victory, and I say ‘his’ victory, but it is really the students’ victory as they chose him to be their president,” said Beaudoin in a statement. “I would like to congratulate Aaron Sterling on the vice presidential victory. I have always looked up to him and am fully confident in his ability and look forward to continue working with him and the rest of Student Government to improve UMaine for the student body.”
Though the tickets were divided, outgoing President Kate O’Brien, who had the same experience of working with a previous opponent, said it is nothing to worry about.
“It’s always tricky working with someone you were just running against,” she said. “I do feel good about the electives and that they will do a great job. They both have their objectives in mind, and they won’t let anything get in the way.”
Sterling spoke at the General Student Senate meeting Tuesday night about his plan to keep his opponents’ platforms in consideration and to combine them with his own plans.
“We all have the students’ best interests at heart,” said Sterling.
O’Brien said she believes that she is leaving Student Government in a better place than when she and McNaughton first came in and she believes he will continue the trend.
“There is a constant evolution of how to better serve the students,” she said. “It’s all about what the students want, not myself or Brigham or the senate, but the entire student body.”
The referendum for an increased activity fee from $35 to $50 failed by 56.7 percent of the votes. It received the most student interest with a combined total of 1,962 votes cast in favor of and against.
“I’m pretty glad that the funding didn’t go through because we already pay enough money to the school, and I don’t think things will change by having more activities that people will actually go to,” said Amanda Hoover, junior engineering physics major.
“I think a lot of students didn’t vote for the referendum because they felt they could spend it better themselves for their entertainment,” said O’Brien. “This tells us that the students don’t know what Student Government does for them, and we need to work on making them more aware. The number of clubs on campus has increased while we’ve been working with the same budget for six years.”
“I am disappointed in the defeat of the referendum question,” said Derek Mitchell, student senator and a proponent for the referendum. “I think the increase would have made a huge amount of improvements in student entertainment.”
Mitchell said he plans on asking for a more modest increase of the student entertainment fee next semester. He realizes that any increase is difficult for students paying their tuition out of pocket.
“It’s a toss-up,” said Lee Hunter, a senior communications major. “On one hand, it’s only $15. On the other hand, it’s $15 that you don’t really know where it’s going.”
A few miscommunication errors marred the election process, but electronically, this year’s elections were flawless, according to Jesse Wertheim, the Fair Election Practices Commission chairman.
Two referendums were not included in Monday’s elections because of the lack of time available to finalize them. They will be put forth in the Off-Campus Board elections that take place next week. One referendum involves changing the date when the vice president of Financial Affairs reports for the new term from January to February, according to Wertheim. The other is about adding the vice president of Student Entertainment to the Executive Budget Committee.
Another issue concerned a misprint of the election times that they ran from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. when they actually closed at 5 p.m., according to FEPC guidelines. That error was fixed as soon as it was brought to his attention, said Wertheim, and he received no reports that anyone could not vote because of this.
There were some complaints from students about the time of day voting takes place that is currently required by FEPC guidelines. A few students voiced that they were unable to vote because they had other commitments during that time.
Wertheim said he intends to work toward extending the time allotment and amending certain guidelines requiring ballot information to be finalized two weeks in advance of the elections to avoid these issues in the future.
Bangor Daily News