ASUN Senate Candidate Results
Agriculture & Natural Rasourcss
Jed Christensen, COMMIT; 160 votes (28
percent)
Chad Viilwok, VISION: 149 votes (26 percent}
Architecture
Heather Danieison, COMMIT; 16 votes (51
percent)
Arts & Sciences
Kara Slaughter, COMMIT: 383 votes (9.2
percent)
Natalya Shannon, COMMIT: 367 votes {8.9
percent)
Urrvano Gamez Jr., COMMIT: 334 votes (8
percent)
Lana Zumbrunn, COMMIT: 324 votes (7.8
percent)
Todd Moran, COMMIT: 319 votes (7.7 percent)
Molly Welchman, VISION: 298 votes (7.2
percent -- TiE)
Nate Clabaugh, COMMIT: 298 votes (7.2
percent - TIE)
Business Administration
Joel Wiegert, COMMIT: 242 votes (15.1 percent)
Andy Schuerman, COMMIT: 235 votes (14.7
percent)
Sommer Sjulin, VISION: 216 votes (13.5
percent)
Tom Heacock, VISION: 212 votes (13.2 percent)
Engineering
Heather Wilkinson, COMMIT: 145 votes (37
percent)
Paul Schreier, COMMIT: 123 votes (31.5
percent)
Fine A Performing Arts
Erin Reitz, COMMIT: 22 votes (43 percent)
General Studies
Matt McClymont, VISION: 105 votes (21.5
percent)
Jon England, VISION: 88 votes (18 percent)
Ryan Anderson, VISION: 86 votes (17.6
percent)
Human Resources & Family Sciences
Brad L. Reynolds, COMMIT: 42 votes (45
percents)
Journalism & Mass Communications
I Matt Boyd, COMMIT: 118 votes (56 percent) |
Law
Q. Okubanjo, COMMIT: 7 votes (100 percent) |
Nursing
Heather S. Swanson, independent: 8 votes (67
1 percent)
Teachers College
; Chelsy Hams, COMMIT: 109 votes (27 percent) !
Stephame Artz, VISION 89 votes (22 percent) i
| Continuing Studies, Dentistry, Graduate
| Studies, and Public Affairs & Community
Jon Frank/DN
New system
makes ballot
count faster
By Amanda Schindler
Staff Reporter
Despite the nearly impossible feat of com
pletely filling in those little ovals, this year’s
election process was made taster and easier.
Six new automatic ballot machines were in
place Wednesday at all voting locations to speed
the sorting and counting process.
“The time factor will be cut down tremen
dously,” said Marlene Beyke, ASUN director of
development, before the late-night results were
tabulated.
The Election Commission experimented
with three of the machines last year and had no
problems, so it decided to go ahead with the idea
agam this year, said Commission Director Tag
Herbek.
Thanks to the machines, commissioners
will not have to transport the ballot boxes to the
Lancaster County Election Commission Office,
where ballots have been tallied in past years.
Ballots were counted automatically as soon
as they entered the machines, Herbek said,
which saved the election commission the long
trek to the county office.
Though the new system is faster, Herbek did
not expect to release the results sooner because
this was the first year the machines were used.
“We’re kind of holding our breath,” Herbek
said Tuesday.
Election Systems and Software of Omaha
supplied the polling machines for a slightly
higher price than the old system cost, Beyke
said.
Changes in polling sites and the times they
were open saved ASUN money which balanced
any cost increase, she said.
Beyke said the new system was as accurate
as the last. Numbers were cross-referenced
three times: with the polling sign-in books, with
the tape from the ID scanners and with the
Computer Resource Center’s records of who
voted where.
The polling machines will continue to be
used each year the Election Commission votes
to use them.
Brown gives VISION solace
■ Party members say some of
their platform still can be
realized despite split victory.
By Brad Davis
Senior Reporter
Though most of their executive ticket didn’t
win, VISION party candidates said part of their
message got through with the election of second
vice presidential candidate Eddie Brown.
Association of Students of the University of
Nebraska Senator and VISION campaign adviser
Mark Shields said some of the party’s platform will
become a reality with Brown in office.
Presidential candidate John Wiechmann and
first vice presidential candidate Jill Maaske lost to
the COMMIT party by 340 votes, by unofficial
results. Hopeful VISION party members and sup
porters gathered at the N-Zone bar and grill at 728
Q St. in the Haymarket to await the election results.
Wiechmann and the other executive candidates
arrived about 11 p m., a little more than an hour
.
after results were announced.
Because the victory was split, Wiechmann said
he felt a combination of shock, disappointment
and happiness.
“VISION's dreams can still become a reality,”
Wiechmann said. “In some ways, the university
wins out.”
With a spirit of cooperation among
COMMIT’s winning executive candidates and
Brown, the parties will work to make each other's
campaign goals a reality, Wiechmann said.
Brown said although he was disappointed the
two “very qualified” candidates he was running
with lost, he looked forward to working with
President-elect Sara Russell and First Vice
President-elect Kelly HofTschneider.
“There was some pain there,” Brown said, “but
when you think about it and set the emotions aside,
I look forward to working with them."
In the future, Wiechmann said he’ll continue
his involvement with student government in some
capacity. Maaske said she’ll also strive to “make a
difference” at the university.
Though the executive candidates who won’t
work with Brown next year said they have “no
_
regrets,” they said unfair media coverage given to
current ASUN executives may have swayed the
vote.
Wiechmann said he thought it was wrong for
current ASUN executives Curt Ruwe and
Malcolm Kass to involve themselves in the elec
tions, Ruwe with a letter to the editor and Kass with
a COMMIT endorsement in his weekly column in
the Daily Nebraskan.
ASUN Senator and VISION supporter
Kendall Swenson said now was the time to put pol
itics aside.
“I just hope when it comes down to it that peo
ple try to make a difference without party politics
and just try to do the best for the university,”
Swenson said.
Even though two VISION executive candi
dates lost, VISION candidate for business college
advisory board and party treasurer Adam
Thompson said both parties accomplished a lot
with this year’s election.
“This year’s race was actually a race,”
Thompson said. “Both parties had a lot of quali
fied individuals.
“It was a real election this year.”
Voter turnout
in ASUN race
best since 593
I ELECTION from page 1
dentiai nominations constituted more
than 13 percent of the votes while 3.86
percent of the voters wrote in a second
vice presidential candidate.
The names of those written in were
not immediately available late
Wednesday night.
COMMIT also dominated the sena
torial races by securing 17 seats;
VISION's senators won eight seats.
Out of 26 senate seats, one was a tie;
two were decided by a single vote.
This year’s voter turnout - 2,826 stu
dents - was 3.7 percent higher than last
year’s 9.84 percent, when 2.175 students
cast ballots.
Marlene Beyke. ASUN director of
development, said there were 21,000 eli
gible voters this year.
Members of the ASUN Election
Committee said more informed students
and the competitiveness between the
COMMIT and VISION parties were two
possible reasons for a higher turnout.
Nebraska Union polling site leader
Chris Wilhelm said this year’s polls were
busier than last year’s.
“I’m sure a lot of it has to do with the
weather,” Wilhelm said. “The cold
weather pushed a lot of students inside.”
Amy Rager, ASUN first vice presi
dent, said she was pleased with the way
students voiced their opinions.
“The party system does work,”
Rager said. “People do get out and vote
for who they believe in.
“Students do choose the best stu
dents for the job.”
Kallie Blauhorn, a freshman politi
cal science major, said she hoped all stu
dents who voted did so wisely.
“You really do need some kind of
source of information if you are going to
vote,” Blauhorn said. “When you are
informed you can make a wise decision.”
Jeff Nicolaisen, a sophomore
finance, economics and international
business major, agreed.
“The typical UNL student probably
didn’t vote wisely,” Nicolaisen said.
“However, everyone did have the oppor
tunity to learn about the parties and their
platforms to make a wise decision.”
Freshman business administration
major Abby Hippen said she did not vote
because she did not feel elections were a
big part of college life.
“I read about the elections and was
familiar with the parties,” Hippen said.
“However, I just didn’t think my vote
would .have mattered.”
Scott McClurg/DN
VISION FIRST VICE PRESIDENTIAL candidate Jill Maaske, left, and second vice president-elect
Eddie Brown speak with a Daily Nebraskan reporter Wednesday night at the VISION post-elec
tion party held at the N-Zone.
COMMIT incurs more violations
for signs, soliciting votes in union
By Jessica Fargen
Assignment Reporter
Election day campaign strategies cost
the members of COMMIT some cash
Wednesday as they found themselves
fined for the second day in a row.
The Electoral Commission fined
COMMIT $25 because members encour
aged students at the Nebraska and East
unions to vote for their party, which is
illegal at polling sites.
It also was fined $10 for having over
sized posters in Sandoz and Neihardt res
idence halls.
The signs, which were larger than the
designated 8.5-by-1 1-inch posters, were
posted in the wrong spots and were not
stamped by the Association of Students of
the University of Nebraska.
Todd Munson, who solicited write-in
votes in a Daily Nebraskan column last
month, also may be fined again for hav
ing oversized posters.
He was fined $21 on Tuesday.
Nine more of Munson’s posters were
found by members of the commission
Wednesday in Avery, Sandoz and Burnett
halls. But commission members decided
to wait to review those complaints until
Monday when they also will meet to offi
cially verify the election results.
Amy Rager, first vice president, said
the commission waited to consider com
plaints against Munson because members
were still considering whether or not
Munson would actually pay the fines
already incurred.
Also, she said, the craziness of elec
tion night required the commission to
move on to other business. Rager said this
year the commission handed out more
fines than usual because the race is closer
than it has been in the past.