The FUSION Slate swept the ballot yesterday in one of the lowest voter turnouts in recent ASUNM Senate elections.
Unofficial results from the Associated Students of UNM Elections Commission showed only 460 undergraduate students voted for the 10 Senate seats available.
Elections Commission Chairwoman Michelle Griego said that the fall election usually has a smaller turnout than the spring election and having only 12 candidates hurt voting numbers.
"I think the reason for the small turnout was that there wasn't a lot of competition," Griego said. "I'm confident that in the spring election, we'll see a lot more voters."
Justin Crosby, Paul Daniels, Kelly Shaffer, Jacque Garcia, Celestina Torres, Samantha McNulty, Adelicia Otero, Elizabeth Schomburg, Diego Hurtado and Brittany Jaeger were elected to the Senate. Crosby, Garcia and Torres were re-elected for a second term.
Senator terms last one year. The 10 senators begin their terms at the start of the spring semester.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Torres said she was excited about being re-elected and was eager to continue the working.
"I can't wait to continue what we're doing," Torres said. "We need to draft more legislation as to what defines the role of what senators do and how we can better serve student organizations."
She also said she was a little dismayed about the low turnout and suggested conducting student surveys in the coming months to see what would get students out in greater numbers.
Daniels said he is ready to hit the ground running to help his fellow students.
"This feels pretty good," Daniels said. "I plan to start reaching out to the students as soon as possible."
Otero shared Daniels' enthusiasm.
"Some of my (sorority) sisters are already senators, so I will ask them for pointers to be the best senator I can possibly be," she said. "Our slate worked really hard for this. It wasn't just for ourselves, it was for everybody."
Cezanne Fink and Matthew Gallegos failed to garner enough votes to be elected.
Fink said she learned a lot from the campaign experience though, and would mull over another run at the Senate in the future.
"It's something I really think I can do a good job at," she said. "I learned a lot about the school and what the student government needs to provide for the students."
