Miller ’12 wins election for class presidency

In the runoff race, Ashton Miller ’12 won the position of president over contender Michael Yaroshefsky ’12, while Lindy Li ’12 won the position of vice president over opponent Sojung Yi ’12.

Austin Hollimon ’12 will be class treasurer, despite receiving fewer votes than Bill Pang ’12.

Pang, who received the most votes for treasurer, had his candidacy invalidated after an investigation determined that Pang had “overspent the limit by buying an ad in the ‘Prince,’ ” senior elections manager Braeden Kepner-Kraus ’10 said.

Runoff elections occurred for any position in which no candidate had a majority of the student votes in the first round.

PJ Das ’12 was elected social chair in the first round after winning more than 50 percent of the votes. Kelly Roache ’12 ran uncontested for class secretary.

Students began voting for runoff candidates at noon on Wednesday. Voting was open for 24 hours.

According to USG statistics, 918 students, or about 74 percent of this year’s freshman class, voted in the first round. The turnout dropped to 653 students for the runoff.

There were multiple setbacks during this year’s election process.

Li said that — besides Yi and her — another candidate for vice president, Fede Torre ’12, had also been informed that he had qualified for the runoff. Several hours later, the USG sent an e-mail correcting the earlier notification and informing Torre that he was not a runoff candidate.

“He had already started putting up posters,” Li said, adding that the situation “definitely could’ve been avoided.”

The runoff elections were previously delayed from Tuesday to Wednesday because of a holdup in the registrar’s verification of the general election results when USG webmaster failed to send them to the registrar’s office in the proper format. There were also technical difficulties with the Point website server that had to be fixed.

Kepner-Kraus said that he did not feel anything about the ballot process needed to be changed, but that there were “issues in terms of rules and penalties” for the candidate process.

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“People slip through loopholes,” he said.

Christopher Harding ’12, one of the initial candidates for class president, had earlier sent two unsolicited e-mails to the Class of 2012. He was not punished, Kepner-Kraus said, because the USG election guidelines state no penalty for breaking this rule.

Roache considered these events in a different light. “You always encounter [rule violations] in an election,” she explained, adding that it was a “testament to the caliber of the candidates” that most contestants did conform to the campaign rules.

Some students were not satisfied with the campaign procedure. Hollimon said that the amount of campaigning allowed was “relatively limited.” Candidates were allowed a total of $30 for their canvassing costs.

The USG, however, will not consider expanding the budget, Kepner-Kraus said, explaining that the election should maintain “a level playing field.”

Miller said that he was very excited to have been elected president and plans for the freshman class government to have an extensive meeting within the next three to four days. Among the events that he hopes to propose, he noted, are a Starbucks study break during midterms and an “assassins” game for the Class of 2012. Class sweatshirts and organization for the freshman formal are also on the agenda.

Roache said that she hopes to discuss interaction with the community, budgeting more money for study breaks and raising the spending limit for late meals at Frist Campus Center.