Courtesy of Annalise Anderson | The Crow’s Nest
By Annalise Anderson
After a dismal voter turnout last fall, this year’s Student Government (SG) midterm elections generated improved student engagement for USF St. Petersburg, but, like last year, the possibility remains that every candidate is a winner.
Preliminary results of SG’s midterm election and a last-minute vacancy in St. Petersburg’s Senate suggest all 13 candidates may win a Senate or Campus Council seat.
Last week, St. Petersburg students voted to fill the campus’s four vacant Senate seats and eight vacant Campus Council seats. However, a fifth Senate seat became available after voting closed on Oct. 13 due to a spring 2021 candidate revoking their placement.
Of St. Petersburg’s 3,738 eligible voters, 184 cast their ballots. Voters could choose more than one candidate for Senate and Campus Council.
According to the results announced on Oct. 14, two candidates, Chevaughn Bashford and Taylor Herman, won the popular vote for both Senate and Campus Council. SG requires the two candidates to choose which position they prefer to fill.
Bashford and Herman’s decisions will determine which candidates fill the remaining seats.
The top four elected to Senate are Bashford, Kande DaCosta, Iris Van Der Zeen and Herman. Bashford earned 62 votes; DaCosta 101 votes; Van Der Zeen 47 votes; and Herman 67 votes.
Because they only ran for Senate, DaCosta and Van Der Zeen’s seats are confirmed.
The top eight elected to Campus Council are Julia Bailey, Abigail Baker, Bashford, Reanna Cowan, Herman, Jalise Martinez, Maya Morant and Lucas Walters. Bailey earned 75 votes; Baker 68 votes; Bashford 91 votes; Cowen 53 votes; Herman 88 votes; Martinez 66 votes; Morant 82 votes; and Walters 56 votes.
Bailey, Cowan, Martinez and Morant’s seats are confirmed. Baker and Walters ran for both Senate and Campus Council, meaning their positions may change depending on how Senate seats fill.
Candidates Valeria Ferrari (42 Senate votes), Matthew Ibarra (31 Senate, 50 Campus Council votes) and Jayden Sutliff (30 Senate, 52 Campus Council votes) did not win the popular vote, but their chances of becoming St. Petersburg representatives remain until election results are certified on Friday.
Ibarra and Sutliff ran for Senate and Campus Council, making them eligible for all potential remaining seats. Because Ferrari only ran for Senate, she is only eligible for a remaining Senate seat.
After SG’s 2020 fall elections revealed remarkable voter apathy across all three campuses, USF’s two branch campuses recorded an increase in turnout this year.
St. Petersburg saw 4.92% voter turnout, a significant 3.85% jump from fall 2020’s special and midterm elections that yielded a dismal 1.07% turnout.
USF Sarasota-Manatee saw 3.09% voter turnout, with 49 ballots cast from its 1,588 eligible voters, marking a 2.81% increase from last fall.
USF Tampa experienced the lowest voter turnout this year. Only 2.74% of its 43,410 eligible voters casted ballots, a 1.22% drop in its voter turnout from last fall.
Results of the midterm election will be certified on Friday. Results will be posted on the SG website at usf.edu/student-affairs/student-government.
