A few candidates walked away with the thrill of victory Thursday
night, but for many more, the race is still on.
Four positions on the Undergraduate Students Association Council
had outright winners from this week’s election, but six
others were not decided in the vote ““ academic affairs
commissioner, cultural affairs commissioner, facilities
commissioner and the three general representative positions.
The 12 candidates running for one of the undecided positions
will participate in a runoff next week with an election occurring
Tuesday through Thursday.
All candidates involved in the run-off are from one of the two
largest slates ““ Students First! or Students for United
Reform and Equality.
For AAC, CAC and facilities commissioner, no candidate got more
than 50 percent of the vote, which is required for election.
However, for those three contested positions, candidates from the
First! slate had the larger percentage.
Because there were more than six general representative
candidates, a candidate needed 25 percent of the vote to win
outright. Since none got the necessary percentage, the top six will
compete in the runoff next week.
Students from both slates were confident in their ability to win
the second time around.
“We have the momentum, we feel the love from the
community; next week we will come out stronger,” said Jenny
Gálvez, a First! general representative candidate.
“Once we make sure we’re out there showing ourselves
and people understand the alternatives, they’re going to vote
for S.U.R.E.,” said general representative candidate Joshua
Lawson.
S.U.R.E. candidates believe they would have won the contested
positions, but that the United Independents slate, formed by former
S.U.R.E. member Andrew LaFlamme, stole their votes.
“We’re just trying to win an election we should have
had in the first place,” said S.U.R.E. AAC candidate
Christine Sol, adding that S.U.R.E. would have
“absolutely” won without the presence of U.I.
“I think more students identify with S.U.R.E. It’s
those students that decided not to vote,” said Marcello
Robinson, a cultural affairs commissioner candidate.
Robinson said he believes S.U.R.E. would have had the edge if
more students had voted.
S.U.R.E. members also said student education is key in winning
votes next week.
“It’s not just about (using fliers) anymore,
it’s about sharing real information,” said Amy Lucas, a
S.U.R.E. general representative candidate who emphasized the
importance of face-to-face interaction.
First! candidates said they will run next week’s campaign
similarly to this week’s and feed off the success of this
first election, as they garnered more combined votes than S.U.R.E.
candidates.
“(We will) bring it on strong next week like this
week,” said Tutram Nguyen, facilities commissioner
candidate.
“It is obvious that people want us in office. Next week we
are going to come out stronger and sweep,” said Linda Lam, a
general representative candidate.
First!, like S.U.R.E., emphasized the importance of educating
students about which slate has the better candidates.
“We are concerned about educating (students) so that they
see we’re the most qualified to be in USAC,” said
First! general representative candidate Nelson Saldaña.
Mike Cohn, elections board adviser, said this election had the
most runoffs since 1998, and that only one general representative
candidate in USAC history has won outright when there were more
than six candidates.
With reports from Menaka Fernando, Daily Bruin Staff.