ASUNM: Another record-low turnout for Senate election

The final election of the school year had 11 candidates elected by 961 students to the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico Senate. 

The turnout — a rate of 6 percent — is the lowest in 15 semesters. Despite the low turnout, Elections Commission Director Jordan Montoya and Assistant Director Christian Ojeda said they were happy with the turnout in context of relatively few candidates and bad weather. 

“At the end of the day, voter turnout could be high, voter turnout could be low, but I think what we should really look at is how these amazing people are going to be,” Montoya said after the election. 

They also said they would have liked to have done more outreach and communications to improve student participation in ASUNM’s elections. 

Under Montoya and Ojeda, neither senate election had more than seven percent of UNM undergraduates participate. The presidential/vice presidential election saw a turnout of nine percent, or 1,476 votes, to secure the highest obtainable positions for an undergraduate at UNM.

A survey conducted during the presidential election identified trends in the 1,476 students that voted.  Montoya and Ojeda said she had not seen the results, and did not had a chance to act upon them. The results of the survey were provided to the Daily Lobo by the Student Activities Center upon request.

They also added this election was the easiest in their time leading Elections Commission. In previous elections over the last year, a question about a tweet’s legality and online ballot not working correctly had cropped up during the three-day voting period. 

Emma Hotz pulled in the most votes with 479 votes. Abby Aldrich received 391. Brianna Flores received 378. Mohammad Jaber was re-elected received 366. Giovanni Chioda received 361. Abby Lutz received 357. Nolan McKim received 327. Dequez Irving received 326. Erik Neal received 318. Adam Lopez received 305. Gabriel Ruja was re-elected 300 and will serve the rest of Madelyn Lucas’ term. Lucas is the vice president-elect.  

Justin Garcia is a staff reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers student government. He can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Just516garc.