Two USG races to go to runoff vote today

The results of spring USG elections were announced Friday evening on the USG website.

A number of candidates ran unopposed, though competition increased after the filing deadline was extended by two days for races with an insufficient number of candidates.

There will be runoffs for USG social chair and Class of 2012 treasurer, and a revote for Class of 2013 vice president after incumbent Gabrielle Cole ’13 was disqualified for violating election rules during the voting process. Both the revote and the runoffs will take place today.

“The results were more or less what I expected,” Jake Sally ’12, a candidate for social chair, said in an e-mail. “My campaign efforts will remain the same. There's not really that much I can do given the short notice between the results and the second round of voting. People know both the candidates and what they're trying to do as social chair. Honestly, now it's just a matter of time.”

Chenyu Zheng ’12, Sally’s opponent in the run-off, said in an e-mail that she had done some research on Lawnparties in anticipation of the runoff.

“[I] have done more research on the Lawnparties concert musicians,” she said. “I have been in touch with the Penn Spring Fling planning committee and learned more about their search and booking of Snoop Dogg and Kid Cudi. Moreover, with the help of some friends, I have compiled a potential list for next year's Lawnparties.”

Sally won 411 votes in the first round of voting while Zheng won 409.

Incumbent Class of 2012 treasurer Austin Hollimon, who received 138 votes during the first round, will face Peter Favaloro, who earned 113 votes, in a runoff.

Hollimon said he will “most likely not” campaign further, in part because of academic commitments. He also said Cole’s disqualification made him question his understanding of election rules.

“After the disqualification of Gabrielle Cole, I’m not sure what is legal and not legal,” he explained. “As far as postering and official campaigning, I don’t think I’ll do anymore.”

Favaloro said in an e-mail that he was “honored to have made the runoff.”

“I'm still campaigning through Facebook and e-mail, but I haven't put up any posters and I'm not going to start now,” he added.

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Of the 22 candidates for U-Council, incumbents Carter Greenbaum ’12, John Allen Zumpetta ’11, Steve Lindsay ’12 and Alex Pretko ’12 were reelected.

Eleven of the 12 unsuccessful candidates for U-Council were freshmen. Only two members of the Class of 2013, Merik Mulcahy and Sarah Wiley, were elected to the position.

Katlin Poladian ’12, Sarah Cornfeld ’11, Tulio Jose Alvarez Burgos ’12 and Amy Ridgeway ’12 also won seats on the U-Council. Ridgeway is a copy editor for The Daily Princetonian.

Hanna Tian ’13 retained her position as Class of 2013 treasurer, defeating Stephen Stolzenberg, and Jamie Joseph defeated incumbent Cameron Hough in the race for Class of 2013 social chair.

Two referenda were on the ballot this year: one to assess student opinion about the administration and another asking students to approve reforms to the Honor Committee.

While a plurality of voters — 378 out of 686 respondents — indicated that they approved of how top-level administrators run the University, 324 students indicated that they feel top-level administrators do not listen to student input while creating substantial campus policies. 218 students replied that administrators did listen to student opinion on significant campus policy issues while 146 respondents had no opinion on the question.

For the first time since it appeared on the ballot in spring 2008 after being submitted by Kyle Smith ’09, the referendum’s final question, which asks whether it should appear on the next year’s ballot, was not approved by one sixth of eligible voters as required, though 510 voters voted in favor of having the referendum reappear while only 172 voted against the measure.

“The USG is not obligated to post Referendum I on the ballot again next spring, but the data collected by the questions is interesting, so I suggest that next year's administration consider posing those questions again via a survey,” USG president Michael Yaroshefsky ’12 said. “Those questions are more appropriate to appear on a well-organized survey than an election ballot.”

The Honor Committee referendum, submitted by committee chair Peter Dunbar ’10, passed 547 to 93.

“We’re obviously excited about it,” Dunbar said. “We think it will be an improvement in efficiency for all reasons stated in the referendum and at the town hall meeting.”

The referendum will allow the three alternate members on the committee to become full members with full powers to investigate potential offenses.

“Given some articles about the Honor Code that have been written, there is, at times, frustration voiced on the part of the student body,” Dunbar said. “I was cautious in my forecast of the outcome, but in conversations with people, they thought the referendum was reasonable from a procedural standpoint, despite concerns with the overall system.”

Class of 2012 president Lindy Li, vice president Nick Pugliese, social chair PJ Das and secretary Angela Groves retained their positions after running unopposed.

Class of 2013 president Zach Beecher ran unopposed and retained his position. Kendra Simon also ran unopposed and will become class secretary.

Rosen ran uncontested for reelection as Class of 2011 president, along with Class of 2011 vice president Michael Perl, treasurer Jonathan Gary, secretary Shaina Li and social chair E.J. Chi.

“We’ve been together for several years now, and we work well as a team,” Rosen said. “We’re going to look for opportunities to get other members of the class involved.”

He added that senior class government has several “additional responsibilities” and said he plans to form committees that will allow more members of the class to be involved.