About 5,860 people voted Tuesday in UF’s Student Government elections, which continue today.
That number is about 11 percent less than Spring 2012’s 6,517 first-day voters. The total for the first day of Fall 2011 elections was 5,486, according to Alligator archives.
While voting, students are asked three times to verify their district. If it is wrong, they are asked to digitally sign an affidavit with their correct address.
Several students were incorrectly registered for District E, which included zip codes not in the other four districts. Classification errors also occurred in the Fall 2011 elections.
Students may have been placed in District E because their permanent home address is saved with the Office of the University Registrar, according to Alligator archives.
Maggie McGovern was registered in the wrong district Tuesday when she tried to vote at the Computer Sciences and Engineering building.
“I was registered for District E, but I know I’m in District D,” the 20-year-old anthropology junior said. She signed the affidavit with her new address.
When a student is registered for District E, the screen displays that the student doesn’t live in any of the other zip codes. But when students are registered for other districts, the zip codes did not appear.
When Vatsal Vora voted at the CSE building, he didn’t know which district he should have been registered in.
“I’m not 100 percent sure, but it seems like it was correct,” said the 18-year-old computer engineering sophomore.
Supervisor of Elections Stephen Davis did not return phone calls regarding the districts.
Students Party President Ford Dwyer was placed in District B even though he’s running for District D, where he lives.
“We are disappointed but still deciding what will happen about that,” Dwyer said.
Despite potential district issues, he said the first day of elections ran smoothly.
Swamp Party spokesman Daniel Landesberg echoed that sentiment.
“I think they went well, but I guess we’ll see [tonight],” he said.
Landesberg said he doesn’t think the issue regarding districts will cause problems. He said the multiple chances given to students to change their districts worked well.
The Election Commission also heard two complaints, filed by the Swamp Party, Tuesday. The commission voted the Students Party must remove by 10 a.m. today fliers that were left at Stoneridge Apartments. The other complaint, which was about the Students Party tweeting during a summer Student Senate meeting, was dismissed because the commission could not find a violation.
The commission will hear other elections violation complaints Thursday. As of press time, it had received four complaints, said Election Commission chairman Wes Stephens.
The Supreme Court also heard an appeal regarding the Election Commission’s decision that the Swamp Party cannot be referred to as “the former Unite Party,” or any variation thereof, in campaign materials. The court lifted the cease and desist order.
Contact Samantha Shavell at sshavell@alligator.org.
Jeremy Melendez, 20, Roman Quintana, 20, and Marcy Khan, 20, cast their votes Tuesday at the Reitz Union computer lab. They said they want a say in what happens at UF.
