Students have the opportunity today to elect four students tothe Associated Student Government Executive Board, following a weekof heavy campaigning and last-minute changes to the electionguidelines.
The election ballot will be available today from 8 a.m. to 8p.m. Undergraduate students can vote by clicking on a link onHereAndNow.
The outcome of the presidential race could leave candidatesguessing until the last minute, as results from a Daily poll takenMonday show.
Results could be swayed by write-in votes — approved over theweekend by ASG officials after a disputed Senate vote on Wednesday– even if votes are for inanimate objects or a person not enrolledat NU, said Avery Maron, Election Commission chairman.
Besides candidates on the ballot and write-ins, students alsocan choose a “no confidence” or abstain option. If a candidate,write-in or “no confidence” does not receive 50 percent of today’svote, a runoff election will be held Thursday to decide between thetop two vote-getters.
Should a runoff pit an official candidate against a non-studentwrite-in, such as The Arch, any votes for the write-in candidatestill will count. If a non-student write-in candidate receivesenough votes to be elected, the new ASG Executive Board willappoint a student to fill the post, Maron said.
On Monday, The Daily polled 400 NU undergraduates to evaluatestudent opinion about ASG’s performance and the upcomingelection.
Two questions in The Daily’s Monday poll addressed whether ornot students were aware of the elections and if they planned tovote in them. Of the 400 students, 67.2 percent said they wereaware of elections.
Although 67.25 percent of students said they knew about theelections, only 57 percent of the respondents said they plan tovote.
When those intending to vote weighed in, Nafis Ahmed, MichaelBlake and Tamara Kagel — three of four presidential candidates onthe ballot — were in a statistical dead heat. Although Ahmed ledslightly in The Daily’s poll, the difference was smaller than themargin of error.
Presidential candidate Mike Fong lagged slightly behind.
Ahmed garnered the support of 27.6 percent of the 326respondents planning to vote. Kagel received 23.9 percent, Blakereceived 20.2 percent and Fong received 17.8 percent.
Each of the presidential candidates said Election Day will be ahectic day of campaigning.
Ahmed said he might plan another publicity event for today, butas of Monday night, he and his campaign team were just”brainstorming.”
Maron said the Election Commission on Monday recommended thatAhmed be penalized five points for failure to check in to the ASGoffice and 25 points for not tabulating sidewalk chalk as anexpense. ASG’s Judicial Board will rule on the recommendationstoday.
Candidates can lose up to 25 points before election guidelinesmandate their Web site to be dismantled. After 50 points, thecandidate is forbidden from spending any more money on his or hercampaign. If 75 points are deducted, the candidate must take downall advertisements. A candidate will face impeachment and possibleremoval from the ballot after losing 100 points.
Blake said he will spend today campaigning until the pollsclose.
“I’m going to be all over the place,” said Blake, a Medilljunior. “(I’m going to) get out and meet the people and encouragethem to check out the (candidates’) Web pages.”
Fong said he is expecting a close race.
“I’ll be doing my best to meet every single undergraduate onthis campus,” said Fong, a Weinberg junior. “I’ll still go out fullforce.”
Kagel said she will spend today campaigning as usual but alsowill attend a women’s leadership conference.
In the three vice presidential races, two of the positions onlyhave one candidate on the ballot.
Weinberg sophomore Bryan Tolles is running for executive vicepresident, which serves as second in command for ASG and works withdozens of student groups on funding and programming.
Weinberg sophomore Adam Forsyth is running for student servicesvice president, which works to provide non-academic needs ofundergraduates.
Two candidates — Weinberg freshmen Dan Broadwell and PrajwalCiryam — are on the ballot for the third vice presidentialposition of academic vice president.
Results of all four positions will be disclosed latetonight.
