The Associated Student Government will hold elections for the 2018-2019 academic year on April 11-13. The elections are for the positions of president, vice-president and student trustee, as well as all senatorial seats.
Current President Ben Linzey and Vice President Gabby Gile hope to have 2,500 Colorado Mesa University students participate in the upcoming election. Such a turnout would be the largest in CMU history, with 25 percent of the student body turning out.
Gile thought 1,000 students was a more realistic turnout.
ASG needs 10 percent of full-time equivalency from the most recent census to vote for their new Constitution in order for it to pass.
They would need 699 votes according to census numbers provided by CMU.
If you want to vote, but don’t know about the candidates, where to vote, or what you’re voting on, check out the information below:
How to Vote
Voting will take place online on OrgSync, as well as in booths across campus. Booth will be located across campus.
The Candidates
For president and vice-president, Beau Flores and Jeff Vela are running against Nicole Troester and Donovan Harwell. Read the Flores-Vela profile and the Troster-Harwell profile here for a more in-depth look at the candidates.
As of last week, Flores and Vela have spent $73 while Troester and Harwell have spent over $240 on their campaigns.
For student trustee, Pua Utu is running against Amara Hobbs. Utu is a current ASG justice, while Hobbs is current ASG senator.
A comprehensive list of senatorial candidates can be found here.
The Constitution
ASG has spent several weeks amending their constitution. Though the changes passed through ASG, the constitution still needs 10 percent of the student body vote in order to pass the new amendments.
An overview of the amendments can be found here.
Any students desiring to see an actual copy of the constitution can visit ASG’s website, or stop by Linzey and Gile’s office to look at a hard copy.
The Debates
The ASG presidential and vice-presidential debates will take place April 10 at 7 p.m. in the CMU-TV studio. Any students are welcome to come and watch the debates live in-studio.
Students who wish to live stream the debates can do so on CMU-TV’s YouTube account and Facebook page.
Clips of the debates will also be available on their Twitter and Facebook page the following days.
The Polls
According to two polls conducted by The Criterion, 38 percent of students plan to vote for Troester-Harwell, 37 percent for Flores-Vela, 23 percent plan to not vote at all, and 2 percent are undecided.