“Election time is always exciting because it brings new faces into student government” said current ASUW president Brett Kahler. One of these new faces is Ahmed Balogun, the student elected to step into Kahler’s shoes next fall.
Balogun and his running mate Ricardo Lind-Gonzalez defeated their opponents, Henry Rawlings and Anya Tracy by 241 votes, a difference of less than 10 percent.
Results of the election included who would take seats in agriculture, arts & sciences, business, education, engineering & applied sciences, health sciences and law in the ASUW senate.
Balogun speculated on why they pulled the win out in the end.
“We tried to appeal to everybody, not just a specific group,” he said. “I think that was a huge help for us.”
“I want to say it was our driving ambition” included Lind-Gonzalez. “We actually went up to people and we were asking them not only to vote, but also how their week was going. We just wanted more people voting in general.”
Now that they’re finished campaigning, Balogun and Lind-Gonzalez have some big plans.
“The big focus is on WyoVocal,” said Balogun. “It’s a system we’ve seen implemented under the student government. It’s very good about getting that interaction between students and student government.”
The new president explained that the system would let students go online and list complaints or suggestions on campus life. Every student can view these testimonials and vote on which ones they find relevant. ASUW will take the dilemmas that receive a large number of votes and address them with an investigator to try to find a solution.
“We’re really excited to work with students,” said Lind-Gonzalez. “We’re looking forward to a really great year. I think that these plans that we have are going to make a good difference.”
However, the newly elected students still have some time before they can actualize their plans.
“For today, I’ll just take a nap to regroup,” said Balogun.
Yesterday’s election broke records for the number of students who voted, said ASUW Elections Commissioner Noah Hull. Previously, the most recorded votes in the general election were 2375. This year there were 2725 voters.
The commissioner also discussed a new occurrence for ASUW elections.
“Normally primaries receive more votes because they have more presidential and vice presidential tickets,” said Hull. “This year, we reversed that.”
The primary election reeled in 26.11 percent of eligible voters, while yesterday’s general election brought in 32.5 percent.
