Discourse and action will only continue to increase within Associated Student Government as 10 new senators will be sworn in at ASG’s weekly meeting Oct. 2.

Elections were held Sept. 25-27, in which 92 students voted to fill 10 vacant senatorial seats. Adrienne Barlow (Political Science) and Kenneth Machi (Construction Management) were elected to fill two vacant At-Large Senator seats, receiving a combined 78 votes over opponents Cory Castaneda (Political Science, 21 votes) and Brandi Vlasman (Psychology, 34 votes).

Dillon Chilcote (Political Science) is ASG’s newest Campus Resident Senator, having nabbed 68 votes over his opponent Maya Freismuth’s (Environmental Science) 17.

The remaining seven senators elected this week ran unopposed. Maddie Hansen received 74 uncontested votes to fill the Freshman Senator seat. Likewise, Marcy Harton received 71 uncontested votes to fill the Graduate Senator seat. Meanwhile, five students were elected to fill vacant Health Science Senator seats: Alex Quintana (59 votes), Connor Hill (57 votes), Chelsea McDonald (50 votes), Orianna Rubin (47 votes), and Steven J. Rickett (42 votes).

For the first time, last week’s election was not held directly through MavZone but through the campus engagement network OrgSync.

OrgSync doesn’t just record votes, according to Senate Leader Connor Boe, it also gathers demographic information that hasn’t been available to ASG in previous years.

“We’re trying to find out exactly who’s voting and why they’re voting,” Boe said.

The idea of holding department-specific elections, in which only students of a particular department can vote for senators representing that department, has been discussed recently among members of ASG.

For example, department-specific voting means that only students majoring in English, Spanish or Mass Communication would be able to vote for the Languages, Literature and Mass Communication Senator. However, this is an election practice most commonly utilized by larger population universities that boast much higher voter turnout. The idea will most likely remain only a topic of discussion for the next few terms.

“We’ll have to find out first who’s voting and see if [department-specific elections] would be a detriment to different departments,” Boe said.

cblackme@mavs.coloradomesa.edu