Election outcomes:Student Body President:
Max Yoeli '12 -- 691 votes (16.5% of the undergrad student body)
Will Hix '12 -- 643 votes (15.3%, disqualified by EPAC/ ran as a write-in candidate)
Aaron Limonthas '12 -- 427 votes (10.2%, write-in candidate)
Student Body Vice President:
Amrita Sankar '12 -- 906 votes (21.6%)
Brian Holekamp '12 -- 510 votes (12.2%)
Notes:
* If Hix were on the ballot, he would have won this election. Not since the if-you-don't-vote-for-me-you-support-rape campaign of Tim Andreadis '07 have I seen such an effective write-in campaign, and never with as much adversity. The Elections Planning Advisory Committee's (EPAC) decision to bar Hix had no basis in history or reason and singularly denied Dartmouth what might have been a galvanizing and effective Student Body Presidency. Hix's 48-vote margin of defeat must be especially difficult for him given that he lost the Vice Presidency last year by a mere 7 votes.
* 4 out of 5 dentists recommend crest, but less than one of them voted for Yoeli. One benefit of approval voting is that it enables voters to 'approve' of candidates independently ('yes' to Obama, 'yes' to Hillary, 'no' to Palin) instead of selecting one over another. The candidate with the highest approval rating wins. This usually means that multiple individuals will achieve more than 50% approval, but in this election only 16.5% of the student body 'approved' the victor. How is Yoeli suppose to talk to the Board of Trustees without the mandate of the students? Oh, that's right, he got a higher vote share in his contested election than they did in their uncontested one! (zing!)
* It's heartening to see the stone-faced Sankar beat the bro-y, bored@baker-meme/person Holekamp, who had better stuff to do than attend debates and stuff. Not-giving-a-shit-about-student-politics-while-running-for-office was soooo two years ago. Let's just hope that Sankar takes is able to convert the abstract political interests, disjointed extracurricular resume, and choppy declaratives of her manifesto into SA managerial competence.
Harry Enten = douche, confirm? Why else would he bar Hix and say “Holekamp decided this wasn’t worth his time” before the debate?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Max Yoeli. I think diversity means having greek and non-greek people in SA! I don't know about sustainability or the issues affecting minorities, but I'm sure that I'll figure that out a few days after I'm elected! I just can't wait to help with "communicating student opinion to various campus constituencies", i.e. telling students what they already think!! Both SA and my resume are going to be so super sweet this year. Yippie skippy!
ReplyDeleteI think Holekamp might have turned out better. He had popular support, but no one who would have voted for him bothered to vote.
ReplyDeleteThe following things are clear:
ReplyDelete1- Enten and the people of EPAC did literally everything they could to usurp the democratic process and keep Will from the presidency. In spite of the fact that he was defamed in the press, deemed ineligible, and voters had to write him in, he lost by only 3% of votes cast. If he could have run, Hix (and definitely not Yoeli) would have won.
2- The actual mechanism for voting is completely f***ed up. Hix isn't a comp sci wiz or anything, so if he found them, who knows that the guys in Alpha Theta could have done? In the likely event that abnormalities occurred , EPAC probably wouldn't know. But if they did, and the abnormalities favored Yoeli, they definitely wouldn't say.
3- Yoeli and Sankar don't have a clue what they're in for (and judging by their pictures in the D, neither owns more than one, poorly selected outfit). Yoeli is going to "begin his presidency by familiarizing himself with the structure of the Assembly." Interesting... usually you figure out what the job entails before you freaking run for it. Sankar is going to India. Perfect! I mean I've heard of outsourcing, but that is ridiculous.
In short, place above the SA door, a sign with the following words: "Abandon hope all ye who enter here."