Update 6:05 p.m.:
As of 6 p.m., 2,102 students had voted in the Student Senate election.
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Update 5:00 p.m.:
The race remains close going into the final two hours of voting.
Evan Ecos, treasurer of Student Senate, is able to look at the election results as they come in. Only current Senate executives — the president, vice-president and treasurer — have that privilege as they sanction the Board of Elections.
"Based on everything I have seen, it looks to be a competitive race and I've seen numbers," Ecos said.
As of 5 p.m., 1,957 votes had been cast in the race between VOICE and F.U.S.S., according to Emma Clark, chair of the Board of Elections.
None of the numbers are shared with the candidates, Ecos said.
At 5 p.m., the race for Graduate Student Senate had totaled 265 ballots, according to Katie Mitchell, chair of the GSS Board of Elections.
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Update 4:03 p.m.:
The first contested Graduate Student Senate election in two years has turned out 5.7 percent of the graduate students on campus so far — already more than last year.
As of 3:35 p.m. today, over 240 of the 4,200 graduate students on campus had voted, according to Katie Mitchell, chair of the GSS Board of Elections.
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Update 3:47 p.m.:
1,750 students have voted with just over three hours remaining, according to a tweet from Vice President for Student Affairs Ryan Lombardi.
Just under 2,000 students voted in last year's election.
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Update 2:16 p.m.:
By 2 p.m., 1,430 students had voted in this year's elections, according to Emma Clark, chair of the Board of Elections.
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Update 12:24 p.m.:
As of noon, nearly 1,000 students had voted in this year's elections.
"I'd say 1,000 students in 4 hours is pretty great," said Emma Clark, chair of the Board of Elections.
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Update 11:40 a.m.:
As the day moves on, campaigning is heating up as each ticket tries to get out the vote for victory.
VOICE's Presidential Candidate Nick Southall and F.U.S.S.'s Presidential Candidate Matt Farmer both said they are moving across campus, spreading their message.
"We’re feeling good so far. We’ve been trying to keep getting out our message with tabling, handing out flyers," Farmer said. "We’re definitely outnumbered, but I think students are generally receptive to us."
Farmer said those on his executive-only ticket will be going to class today, because the F.U.S.S. candidates are "students first."
Farmer estimated 15 people will be helping F.U.S.S. get out the vote today.
"I'm in a room in (Baker University Center) right now doing a little bit of social media and stuff. (I'm) about to run around the greens in a little bit," Southall said. "I'm feeling fantastic about it."
Over the course of the day, Southall said he expects to have upwards of 60 or 70 people helping get out the vote for VOICE.
"I’ve been getting really good reception," Southall said. "Everyone I’ve talked to has given me really good feedback."
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Student Senate elections did not start as planned this morning.
All students in the College of Business and all students in the Honors Tutorial College were not able to vote for a college senator this morning, as no candidate was listed on the ballot or able to be written in.
This year was the first year neither party — VOICE or F.U.S.S. — had a candidate for college senator for either of those colleges, said Emma Clark, chair of the Board of Elections.
Because of that, the online ballot did not give students a write-in option for students who did not submit paperwork to be on the ballot.
To remedy this, the BOE is sending out an email to every student in each college asking them to reply to the email with the name of whoever they want written in.
"We’re not missing any students really, because they’ll have the option of writing in their candidate," Clark said. "It will be good saying you need to vote for your college senator and make sure you go and vote for your college senator as well."
Students in the COB and the HTC will be able to reply to the email with their write-in nominations until the normal close of voting at 7 p.m., Clark said.
Check back throughout the day for more updates on Student Senate elections.
Tweet with #senateelection to comment on the race, and send The Post your comments @thepostcampus.
dd195710@ohiou.edu
