More than 12,400 students voted in Student Government elections Feb. 28 and March 1, resulting in a Gator Party executive ticket win and Change Party Senate majority.
Gator candidate Olivia Green will take office as president in April, with Clara Calavia as vice president and Nyla Pierre as treasurer. In the Senate, Change won 30 seats, Gator won 19 and a non-party affiliated write-in candidate won a seat as well.
Change now holds 51 seats in the Senate — a majority.
When Feb. 28 polls closed, 7,619 students had voted, nearly 2,000 more than the first day of Spring 2022. Another 4,853 students voted March 1.
This year’s ballot count surpassed last year’s by more than 3,000. Compared to 2021’s Spring election, nearly 10,000 more ballots were cast this year, signaling a full return from low COVID-19 election turnout.
The UF Election Commission affirmed the election results at a March 3 meeting. It also adjudicated 26 original complaints filed between both parties; 11 were heard at the meeting, while 15 were dropped. Gator was charged a total of $25 with five charges of improperly labeling campaign materials, while the charges brought against Change failed.
Election Commission Chair John Clementi led the four election commissioners present. Director of External Affairs Noah Fineberg advocated for Gator, while Change Deputy Minority Party Leader Oscar Santiago Perez represented Change.
At the end of the meeting, Clementi urged both parties to avoid situations like this in the future by resolving complaints beforehand.
“With everything going on during these elections, it’s just a bad look on UF as a whole,” he said. “Moving forward, both parties need to be more amicable and try to work things out because things don’t get done like this.”
Prior to running for SG office, candidates currently holding office whose positions overlapped with the positions they ran for had to resign their current seats, as per the Resign to Run Act.
As a District C senator, Faith Corbett, Change’s presidential candidate, resigned her Senate seat because it would conflict with the presidency. But since her executive loss, Corbett has attempted to revoke her resignation from the Senate.
Corbett confirmed she’s searching to regain her Senate seat. She hasn’t heard back from Supervisor of Elections Ethan Halle and Senate President Pro-Tempore Catherine Giordano regarding the revocation of her resignation, she said.
Ella Thompson contributed to this report.
Contact Alissa at agary@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @AlissaGary1. Contact Amanda at afriedman@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @amandasfriedman.
Amanda Friedman is a senior journalism major and the Enterprise Editor at The Alligator. She previously wrote for the Avenue, Metro and University desks. When she isn't reporting, she loves watching coming-of-age films and listening to Ariana Grande.
Alissa is a sophomore journalism major and University Editor at The Alligator. She has previously covered student government, university administration and K-12 education. In her free time, she enjoys showing photos of her cats to strangers.
