Uncontested ASU elections await results

By Xavier Johnson, Assistant Sports Editor

Associated Student Union elections for four executive positions came to a close Monday at 11:59 p.m.

Elections were originally slated to end May 11, Student Activity Coordinator Ericka Greene said. The election date was extended to May 16, Greene said.

The ballot consisted of current Vice-President of Club Affairs Safi Ward-Davis for president, ASU Senator Francis Sanson for director of public relations, ASU Senator Addy Brien for the position of activities coordinator and Ryan Villareal, the incumbent for parliamentarian.

Due to low membership in the ASU at the time of the candidate application window closing, all candidates ran unopposed.

The winners of the election will take office July 1, Ward-Davis said.

Exact results for the election are not available because they have not yet been counted. Updates on the results will be posted on The Advocate’s website, cccadvocate.com, at a later date.

Polling took place online through Surveymonkey.com, Greene said. Students entered their student ID number and cast their vote. Polling also took place outside of the Applied Arts Building at a table set up by ASU members.

Results will take a few days to be announced because the student ID numbers need to be checked to make sure there aren’t any duplicate numbers, Greene said.

The ASU meetings every Wednesday from 5:15 to 6:30 p.m. are open for students to come and ask questions of the four candidates, ASU Election Committee Chair Jun Chen said. There were no formal debates held, however.

Current ASU President Nakari Syon said he is for the future of the ASU if Safi Ward-Davis is elected as president.

“She has been a big mentor to me in my time as president,” Syon said. “Safi has been kind of a shadow president in a way as the most experienced and hardworking member of the ASU.”

If recruitment was as successful at the beginning of the semester the elections would not have been made up of candidates that were all running unopposed, Syon said. After the application window closed membership did grow.

Greene emphasized during ASU meetings for senators to go out and recruit new members.

The ASU voted in one new senator, Aireus Robinson, recruited by Syon, at the April 20 meeting, ASU Senator Andrew Lily said.

ASU Senator Francis Sanson said he recruited ASU Senator Karma Dolma.

Syon said recruiting new members was a goal he wanted to achieve at the beginning of the semester.