6
University Daily Kansan
Student Senate Elections
Friday, Nov. 22, 1985
Winners
Continued from p.1
Some members cared as much about the margin of victory as the victory itself. A few Common Sense supporters had predicted a three-to-one margin, but they said they could not believe it had happened.
When someone said it was, Shaver velled. "That's all we care about."
Tom Shaver, another liberal arts and sciences seat winner, immediately asked, "Was it a bigger margin than Frontier.last year?"
Epstein made his first announcement as a presidential winner to people gathered in the house dining room, which served as a dance floor through the night.
People screamed once again, but not everyone was surprised.
"Our candidates swept Nunemaker!" he said, referring to senators who represent freshmen and sophomores in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Allison Eldridge, Nunemaker seat winner, said, "Inside, I thought we would, but outside I knew it would be close."
Epstein's second announcement was, "We are going to do it all in Senate this year, guys."
Eric Vanderhoe, a Common Sense supporter, said Common Sense won because the coalition got issues from the students and chose issues that could be acted on right away.
Tim Henderson, president of the support group Students with Common Sense, said Common Sense won because it was better organized.
"I think students want to see Student Senate do something besides argue," he said.
"Now it's up to us to carry through with the promises we made, and I'm confident that we will."
During their campaign, Epstein and Brown promised to start a night-ride bus to and from popular entertainment spots, publish a guide to professors, create a Senate hotline and work with parking services to try to solve some parking problems around residence halls and scholarship halls.
Common Sense candidates agreed that most of their votes came from traditional students.
"We won because we gave students issues," Brown said. "They knew what they were getting."
Epstein said he had heard rumors that Common Sense would lose the election. That made the coalition campaign harder, he said, and made more students vote.
Scott Swenson, a. Common Sense supporter, said the coalition won because it was balanced. He said the coalition represented scholarship and residence hall residents and off-campus students as well as fraternity and sorority members.
David Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs, called Epstein and Brown about an hour after the candidates received the final election results.
"He said congratulations, and he was looking forward to working with us." Brown said.
At 8 p.m., before Common Sense supporters and coalition members got to the house, Epstein and Brown were tense but not frantic.
"I think the turnout was low enough that it will be close," Brown shid.
Epstein and Henderson even watched the first few minutes of President Reagan's speech on television. However, Henderson kept one hand on the phone.
Epstein and Brown invited Scott and Lightwardt to join their party. Scott and Lightwardt did not attend but sent a representative, Charles Munson, victorious candidate for a fine arts seat, to congratulate the winners.
Paul Goodman/KANSAN
Ruth Lichtwart and Milton Scott, Chrysalis Coalition candidates for student that they lost. Despite the bad news, some Chrysalis candidates and their body vice president and president, relax at Lichtwart's home after learning friends had a slumber party at Lichtwart's home last night.
Defeat not bitter,say losers
By Sandra Crider Special to the Kansan
Milton Scott and Ruth Lichtwardt, Chrysalis Coalition presidential and vice presidential candidates, said last night that their campaign had been a positive experience despite their lopsided loss to the Common Sense Coalition candidates.
Scott and Lichtward waited for the results at an informal slumber party with about 20 other candidates and friends at Lichtward's home on Kentucky Street.
"I don't see it as something we lost," Scott said. "It's just this race we lost. I think we did a good job."
Lichtwart said that they were beaten by "a slick political machine."
Kenneth Coker, Chrysalis campaign manager, said. "I congratulate them. They had a very organized campaign. I learned a lot from watching them."
He said he was disappointed with the low turnout and thought problems with the polling booths could have affected the outcome.
"I was really distressed with the way the elections were run," he said. "The first day would
have been a big turnout, but people weren't able to vote in some places."
The two candidates would not comment on how they thought the incoming Senate would fare.
"We know some of the promises Common Sense were running on won't work locally," Lightwardt said.
She said that Chrysalis' late start on the campaign, its low budget and its members' busy schedules affected the results.
"We should have started six months earlier," she said. "Then I think we really could have done it."
The coalition still plans to try to accomplish some of its goals, such as looking into the food system in the residence halls and working to get a night club in the Kansas Union for students, although it will be more difficult without their holding the top positions in the Senate, she said.
They will also offer advice to students trying to get projects accomplished in Senate by explaining the system. Lightwardt said.
She said she planned to go to all the Student Senate meetings to keep abreast of what goes on there, although she would not be directly involved. But Lichtwardt expressed discouragement about how the Senate had been operating this year.
"I'm getting tired of beating my head against the wall," she said.
Scott said the campaign had given him the chance to meet some great people and renew old acquaintances.
"I was glad to see that I had made an impact on them and they made an impact on me," he said.
He said that now that the campaign was over he wouldn't have as many headaches. He said he could stop staying up late and get back to "business as usual."
Lichtwardt said she had promised herself that if she lost she would buy her herself a puppy. She and Scott made tentative plans to go to an animal shelter tomorrow.
"I'll stay for the slumber party or Ruth will hate me for years to come," Scott said.
Candidates chalk wins to tradition
By Theresa Scott Of the Kansan staff
Common Sense presidential and vice presidential candidates not only swept the entire student body election but also took the majority of votes at every voting site.
Students in the School of Business and Nunemaker voters, freshmen and sophomores in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, cast the highest percentage of votes for David Epstein and Amy Brown, Common Sense candidates who are now the newly elected student body president and vice president.
Eighty-six percent of the votes cast by students in the business school and 85 percent of the votes cast by freshmen and sophomores in the college were for Epstein and Brown.
Epstein said last night that the high support from these two groups was
because Summerfield and Strong halls and the Kansas Union, where these students cast their ballots, were areas where typically traditional students voted.
Epstein said Common Sense candidates were not necessarily traditional students but the coalition was traditional because it ran a full slate of candidates in every Senate division.
"Having full slates in every race was the key," he said. "We had a full slate of Nunemaker candidates and Chriversis didn't."
Many students who voted for Common Sense didn't seem to consider the number of candidates for each coalition to be important.
Brenda Stoldt, Topika sophomore and Nunemaker voter, said she voted for Common Sense because she thought they had the best ideas.
and Nunemaker voter, said he voted for the Epstein/Brown ticket because he belonged to a fraternity.
"I'm in a frat and so is the Common Sense candidate," Fox said. "I voted for the senators pretty much by coalition for the same reason."
Ruth Lichtward, vice presidential candidate for the Chrysalis coalition, said she thought having a full slate of candidates was only a small factor influencing the election results.
She said she thought her coalition had appealed to older students, causing fewer Nunemaker voters to pull the lever for Chrysalis.
Chrysalis took 44 percent of the votes cast at the Kansas Union, with the exception of Nunenaker voting, and 40 percent of the votes cast at the Burge Union — the two polling places where the coalition had the most support. Pharmacy, social welfare, liberal arts and sciences and
graduate students voted in the Kansas Union. Architecture, fine arts, special students and law students voted in the Burge Union.
George Fox, Leawood freshman
"We did better at the Burge and at the Union because that's where older students vote." Lightward said. "We appealed to older students more because we didn't run a real slick campaign. A lot of the older voters know our record in the Senate and agreed with our past actions."
Augustin Gonzalez, Valencia, Venezuela, sophomore and Numemaker voter, said he voted for Chrysalis because of their Senate experience.
Epstein said he thought that Chrysalis had more support at the Burge Union than at most of the other polling places because of the greater number of law students voting for Lichtwardt and Milton Scott, Chrysalis' presidential candidate.
Officials say voting process runs smoother on 2nd day
By Bonnie Snyder and Theresa Scott Off the Kansan staff
Rumors of students voting twice were squelched by placing the poll workers' tables in Strong Hall and in the Kansas Union in a position facing the voting machines instead of sitting next to them.
Voter turnout equals lowest ever
All booths opened within 30 minutes of the scheduled 8 a.m. starting time. Polls opened hours late Wednesday because not enough people showed up to run the machines.
Election results
NUNEMAKER (17)
David Eck (cs) 806
Brady Stanton (cs) 804
Kelly Milligan (cs) 803
Angel Dick (cs) 799
Allison Eldridge (cs) 799
Stacy Smith (cs) 799
Cindy Cohen (cs) 799
Ann Hiszczynski (cs) 794
Craig Abraham (cs) 791
Allison Langstaff (cs) 791
Kevin Fossland (cs) 790
Jason Krakow (cs) 790
Stephanie Quincy (cs) 788
Amy Varyne (cs) 779
Pamela Boden (cs) 776
Susann Steiner (cs) 772
Betsy Bergman (cs) 766
Todd Cohen (ch) 162
Rich Belcha Jr. (i) 153
Kurt Level (ch) 150
Laura Cannon (ch) 140
January Layman (ch) 138
Millicent Williams (ch) 136
Kenneth Coker (ch) 131
"A lot of it's due to the fact that there were only two coaltions running." Day said.
3:30 p.m. because no one was there to run the machines.
Workers who were counting paper ballots for the off-campus Student Senate seat found about 200 McCollum Hall election ballots in the Summerfield off-campus box.
The Student Senate Elections Committee smoothed out some of the wrinkles that occurred in the voting process Wednesday, poll workers and committee members said yesterday.
By a Kansan reporter
One last problem arose yesterday not long after the voting was completed.
David Day, Student Senate Elections Committee chairman, attributed the low turnout to the few number of coalitions running and the few number of concrete issues debated.
Day said ballot boxes were not necessarily checked for other ballots before being locked and used for voting. But he said there was no possibility that Senate ballots had been put in the boxes before voting officially began.
LIBERAL ARTS (8)
Jill Galbreath (cs) 251
Woody Browne (cs) 224
Luca Jellinek (cs) 223
Julie Riggle (cs) 223
Charles Lawhorn (cs) 218
Tom Shaver (cs) 218
Claudio Molteni (cs) 197
Martie Aaron (cs) 194
Gordon Woods (cs) 186
Brett Frazier (i) 133
Kirsten Myers (ch) 132
Javan Owens (i) 122
Stacey Rolfe (ch) 116
Curtis Baxter (cs) 100
Although David Epstein apd Amy Brown won this week's Student Senate election by the largest margin in the Senate's 17-year history, voter turnout equalled the lowest ever at 8.5 percent.
David Day, chairman of the Elections Committee, said that he had workers scheduled for every polling place throughout the day, and that nearly everyone showed up on time.
Day said the fact that voting machines were not set up on time Wednesday did not make a difference in the number of students voting. Polls had been scheduled to be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, but no polls opened before 8:30 a.m. Wednesday and one did not open until 3 p.m.
Caryl Smith, dean of student life, who emptied the ballot box, said the McCollum Hall ballots were damp and stuck to the bottom of the ballot box. She said she thought these ballots were cast about two years ago in a hall government election.
(ch) Chrysalis
(cs) Common Sense
(i) Independent
(w) Write-in
Some of the more than 90 percent of students that didn't vote had many reasons for not going to the polls. Dale Romme, Hays senior, said he didn't vote because he wasn't interested.
These are the unofficial results of this week's Student Senate elections for 58 Senate seats.
Only one poll closed early yesterday— the booth in Summerfield Hall, where business students voted. The poll closed between 2:30 p.m. and
FINE ARTS (2)
Eric Lauterbach (cs) 28
Charles Munson (ch) 18
Workers either checked off names on enrollment lists or had people sign poll registers when they voted, so that the number of voters could be checked against the number of votes the machines recorded.
Day said the second day of voting ran much more smoothly than the first. He said the voting machines were efficient once voters and workers learned how to handle them.
ARCHITECTURE (2)
Laura Rohan (cs) 70
Phillip Duff (1) 61
Steve Vogel (cs) 56
Joe Ogier (ch) 28
Kevin Byrne (ch) 27
EDUCATION (2)
Alicia Lippert (cs) 14
Kristen Zeittler (cs) 14
Clarissa Birch (ch) 7
Emmie Kennicott (ch) 7
"I don't see any evidence that they do anything that affects my life at KU enough to be upset about it," he said.
BUSINESS (3)
Cyny Harnett (cs) 111
Dennis Enslinger (ch) 34
One unfilled seat
An extra Nunemaker machine was opened in Strong Hall to cut down on the long lines.
JOURNALISM (2)
Russell Gray (cs) 88
One unfilled seat
ENGINEERING (4)
Renee McGhee (c) 140
Steve Gilchrist (c) 128
Chris Shirling (c) 125
Robert Evans (t) 110
Jackie Zoucha (i) 67
GRADUATE STUDENTS (12)
Travis Cassidy (cs) 78
Aly Karam (cs) 67
Lyndon Davis (cd) 63
Christina Gustafsson (cs) 62
David Hardy (ch) 59
Glenn Shirliffe (cs) 57
Grant Steinle (cs) 57
Guill Vidalts (cs) 57
Chris Courtwright (ch) 56
James Wilder (ch) 56
Two unfulfilled seats
LAW (1)
One unfilled seat
OFF-CAMPUS (11)
Unavailable
SOCIAL WELFARE (1)
Beth Hanna (cs) 12
Jennifer Balzer (cs) 6
PHARMACY (1)
Terri Lum (es) 6
SPECIAL STUDENTS (2)
Two unfilled seats
Source: Student Senate Elections Committee.
Write-in ties plague elections officials
By Frank Ybarra Special to the Kansan
Kim Robinson may have won the write-in election for the School of Law's Student Senate seat, but then again, it may have been Kim Robinson, election officials said last night.
David Day, elections committee chairman, said the seat was left officially unfilled because of confusion last night over a write-in candidate's name. Six other seats, he said, also remained officially unfilled because of other problems with write-in candidates.
The name Kim Robinson was listed
on a number of ballots filled out by law students. The problem, Day said, is that two Kim Robinson are apparently enrolled in the school.
Some of the ballots, according to Day, had the name Kim H. Robinson, while others had the name Mr. Kim Robinson.
Kim H. Robinson, reached by phone last night, said he was the person drafted into a write-in campaign sponsored by some of his friends. He said he would accept the seat if it were offered to him.
situation.
Day said the Elections Review Board would meet within the next week to decide what to do about the
Election officials announced the off-campus seat winner, Kris Kurttenbach, but said that the number of votes she received was unavailable.
In addition to the School of Law seat, one School of Business seat, one School of Journalism seat, two graduate seats and two special student seats remained unfilled late last night.
The School of Business seat was undecided because of a six-way, write-in lie. The graduate seats were not decided because several write-in candidates were tied for the remaining seats.
The journalism seat and the special student seats were filled with write-in votes but had not been confirmed last night.
In the cases of the ties, Day said, he will try to contact the write-in candidates within the next few days and ask them whether they were seriously seeking a Senate seat. He said he hoped that a few candidates could be eliminated because their write-in votes were a hoax.
If enough write-in candidates can not be eliminated this way, Day said, then Senate rules require that the write-in names be pulled from a hat to decide the winner.