Election winner announced!
Salient already at printers…
12 percent of students had cast electronic votes in the VUWSA General Election by last Thursday – a higher percentage than any recent election. The election results were announced on Friday, a day after Salient’s publication day.
At 5:05pm last Thursday, 2183 students had cast votes online.
Last year, 1042 votes were cast, up from 996 votes in 2005.
2283 votes were cast in 1996. The percentage of students who voted is not available, but believed to be lower than the 2007 election.
Right-wing candidates the A-Team have been credited with inspiring several hundred usually-apathetic students to vote.
Although results were not available before time of press, Salient understands Salient’s News Editor Laura McQuillan received two votes for the Presidency on paper ballots.
McQuillan is not a nominated candidate, but two of her loyal fans added her on to their voting forms. McQuillan is anticipating beating at least one of the other three candidates – incumbent Geoff Hayward, current Education Vice President Joel Cosgrove and A-Team candidate Lukas Schroeter.
McQuillan intends to dispute the election results if the votes are found invalid due to not being a nominated candidate.
