Fall elections for vacant Student Senate seats, Freshman Student Senate seats and Freshman Class President are right around the corner. According to the Election Commissions reports on Tuesday, 47 students filed for the Senate elections, and 15 students filed for Freshman Class President.
Filing for elections ended Monday, September 24 at 3p.m. The filing dates were expedited in a last minute adjustment made by the Student Government Association last week because of an error in the originally published election schedule.
Over the weekend, more vacancies became available when Senators were removed due to absences at Senate Meetings. As a result, the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Science caucuses were opened for filing.
This is the first year that vacancies in Senate have been filled by student wide elections. Students will vote on Oct. 2 and 3 to determine who represents them this year in their respective Senate caucuses.
Students who did not file still have the opportunity to run as a write-in candidate in any race.
Scott Bowen, the speaker of the Student Senate, said in the case of the University Apartments, where there were not any filings for the vacate Senate seats, the write-in candidates who receive the most votes will win.
Allison Krenzien, the Election Commissioner said if a write-in candidate wins, they must submit the required documents after the election in order to be accepted.
Should a write-in candidate win for any race, they have 48 hours to submit a declaration of candidacy form as well as a completed expense report to the Election Commission, Krenzien said.
According to the Election Commissions Rules and Regulations, a write-in candidate must abide by the same regulations as any other candidate. This includes staying below the campaign budget allowed for each race.
The budget for each candidate running for Senate is $150. The budget for each candidate running for Freshman Class President is $400.
Campaigning for elections begins on Oct. 1. Voting starts on Oct. 2 at 9a.m. and ends October 3 at 5p.m. at vote.tamu.edu.
According to the Election Commission, the list of students who filed for elections is as follows. Krenzien said that these students’ candidacy is not official until they have attended the Mandatory Candidates’ Meeting on Sunday, September 30 from 5p.m. until 6:30p.m.