Lone ticket wins election
By KATIE RAND
News Writer
Junior Kim Jensen and sophomore Elizabeth Jablonski-Diehl won the election for president and vice president of the Saint Mary's student body Monday.
However, because Jensen and Jablonski-Diehl were the only candidates running, their only competition was the student body's right to abstain from voting.
"If students choose to abstain it basically means they just don't want to vote for the ticket that's running," elections commissioner Mary Crawford said. "If more people abstain [than vote for the ticket] then we would have to have another election."
However, the vote was not close. Jensen and Jablonski-Diehl took 78.19% of the total votes. Two-hundred and eight students voted for the ticket, while 58 voters chose to abstain. The 266 total voters comprise only 17.5% of the student body.
While that low turnout may come as a surprise, only 350 students voted last year, when only one ticket ran as well.
"Voter turnout was rather low," Jensen said. "We did expect a bit more than that."
At the same time, both Jensen and Jablonski-Diehl agree that students may not have understood the importance of voting this year.
"People started congratulating us last week when the other ticket dropped out," Jensen said. "They didn't realize that the process was far from over."
The few students who did vote had good reason to though.
"I feel it is my obligation as a student of Saint Mary's to participate in our future," junior Heather Goodrich said. "I would have liked to see another ticket run so we would have a choice of other platforms, but I think the two who are running are up to it."
Freshman Jill Roberts agreed with Goodrich.
"I voted because I think student government is really important at our school," she said. "Even though they're running unopposed, I think it's important to show that you care about what happens at Saint Mary's."
While it is sad that so few students actively participated, voter turnout is not the first thing on the minds of Jensen and Jablonski-Diehl.
They are busy making plans for their term, which officially begins on April 1.
"The first thing that we'll address is definitely the SAC [Student Academic Council]," said Jensen.
Jablonski-Diehl seconded her running mate's notion.
"That will be a lot of the organizational side of things," she said. "We need to organize and restructure the SAC, which goes along with strengthening the ties between the student body and the faculty."
Overall, Jensen and Jablonski-Diehl are glad the election is over and they can start completing items on their platform.
"Obviously we were concerned that a lot of students would abstain," Jablonski-Diehl said. "Deep down, I think we knew we would win."
All News Stories for Tuesday, January 29, 2002
