With a total of 2,329 ballots cast in the Student Government Association Fall election, Aggies elected a new Freshman Class President and 15 student senators.
Emma Douglas, SGA Election Commissioner and business honors sophomore, said Student Senate’s decision to close election times earlier ensured that votes could be calculated in time for the Oct. 3 announcement of election results.
“Everything went really smoothly, I’m really happy about that,” Dogalas said. “The senate was nice enough to move the time stop forward so that IT was able to fully realize their entire department in order to count the results.”
Hannah Weger, Speaker of the Student Senate and communication senior, said the number of students at the Sul Ross statue, the site of the election results announcement, was encouraging and likely to increase for the Spring elections.
“I feel like the numbers have drastically increased from the past semesters,” Weger said. “I think this is really spawning from the freshman class. When SGA went and spoke to Fish Camp this year that was something we did differently, and I think that really affected the number of people who are here tonight.”
Sam O’Rourke, who won the Freshman Class President position with 381 votes, said his campaign went off without a hitch.
“I had a bunch of support from Corps staff as a result of being the Corps’ endorsed candidate,” O’Rourke said. “We didn’t spend a cent on the campaign. We didn’t use a single sign. We used social media and word of mouth as our number one campaign tool.”
While currently he does not have any plans for the position, O’Rourke said he fully intends to represent the interests of the entire freshman class.
“I’m a freshman in the Corps of Cadets here, we’re kept in the dark about a lot of things,” O’Rourke said. “I’ve never been freshman class president before, I’ve never been a student at A&M before. I don’t have any specific plans and I don’t have any promises I plan to make or keep other than I promise to put the Freshman class of 2018 before myself, and I will do what’s in their best interests and represent them to the best of my ability.”
O’Rourke said the support of his “brothers” in the Corps made the difference in his campaign.
“I want to make sure my outfit is recognized, and I appreciate all of their support,” O’Rourke said. “God bless and gig ’em.”