SCOTT DOWNEY
Special to The Leader
On Nov. 10 and 11, students voted for the president and vice president duo they think will serve the campus best.
The polls closed Tuesday at 9 p.m. and with 142 votes Jason Burgos, a senior finance and business administration major, and Mary Kay Taylor, a sophomore history and political science major, became the new SA president and vice president elect.
Sitting down with The Leader for this interview was the first time they had been together since hearing that they won, so both thought a hard high-five in celebration was in order.
“I feel pretty excited,” Burgos said. “I am ready for this position and to start working. First order of business is accessing the general climate of the student association, getting all our problems down first and seeing how we can work on them throughout the term.”
“I think it is a great honor to be elected into the vice president position,” Taylor said. Since she is not due to be sworn in until Spring she plans to shadow the current VP to learn the ins and outs of the business.
Taylor wants no student to be uncomfortable because of who they are.
“When I start in the Spring I want to implement gender and inclusivity on campus making sure that pronouns are used [correctly] and make all students on campus feel comfortable here,” she said.
Opponents junior Maggie McHugh and sophomore Kelsea Halloran received 109 votes, while junior Connor Hoffman and junior Holden Bernstein received 102 total votes.
Voting was open for 24 hours all together, but yielded a significantly lower voter turnout than the election last year. Altogether, 358 voters participated in this year’s election with five write-in votes and one invalid. The total is 161 votes less than last year’s executive election — which had 518 total votes — including one write-in.
Charles Williams, a junior mathematics and physics dual major and a student manager of Campus Life, was disappointed with the voter turnout.
“I hate it when people don’t vote,” Williams said. “People fought for your right to vote, so express it [and help] shape the country. They miss their opportunity to shape the campus and make it a better place.”
Josh Young, a junior communication audio/radio major said that the SA didn’t do enough to catch his attention.
“I was aware of it but not fully engaged in it. It didn’t draw my attention,” Young said. “So it didn’t dawn on me to do this election thing.”
Grace Bonasera, a graduate student said that politics are really not something that she is interested in and doesn’t watch out for or pay attention to things of a political nature.
“I didn’t really know the people running,” Bonasera said. “If it was one of my friends I probably would have voted, and I wasn’t going to make an uneducated vote.”
Taylor thought that her and Burgos’ victory was bittersweet because of the low turnout.
“It is good that 300 people actually made their say that they care about how the association and their campus voices are heard,” said Taylor. “[But] you can’t base an entire campus’ issues off of 300 people. It is sad because of the people that did not vote. We will never know what their true opinion is until the next election or they come into the office.”