The first day of voting broke records in recent years with a total of 8,093 ballots cast Tuesday.
UF Supervisor of Elections Hans Rojas said he was happy with the voter turnout and that there were no technical difficulties during voting.
“Overall, elections went very smoothly,” he said.
According to Alligator archives, this year’s first-day turnout increased by 33 percent compared to Spring 2014 elections, which brought in 5,457 ballots. Spring 2013 had 6,274, and Spring 2012 had 6,517.
Swamp Party spokesman and President Ricky Salabarria said he felt the first day went well.
“I was really happy to see all of our candidates out there and engaging the entire Student Body and passing on the message of our platform and what our candidates will do in office,” he said.
Access Party President Matthew Hoeck said he enjoyed engaging with students.
“This is why Access Party was created,” he said. “We were created to be a voice for students.”
Nick Torralba, 19, said he waited about five minutes to vote at Jennings Hall.
“It was relatively fast,” the UF industrial and systems engineering sophomore said.
Voting continues today from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Students must bring their Gator 1 Cards — or government-issued photo ID and know their UFID numbers — to vote.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 2/25/2015 under the headline “First day of SG voting sees highest turnout in recent years”]
