Georgia State’s Student Government Association (SGA) election votes were tallied on April 13, revealing a total of 1,282 votes. The goal was to have 6,000 voters, according to SGA Election Commission Chairperson Nyomi Haynes.
The SGA Executive ballot received the highest vote count with 580 votes. The Senate ballot for the College of Arts and Sciences had second highest with 257 votes, and Robinson College of Business had third highest with 199 votes, according to Haynes.
In all, the School of Nursing Senate candidates had 94 votes, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies received 78 votes, and the College of Education accumulated 74 votes, according to Haynes.
Originally the election poll deadline was scheduled to close April 12 at midnight. Haynes said the cutoff point was extended to April 13 at 10 a.m. to help give voters back voting time due to technical difficulties experienced with OrgSync.
“We heard several complaints from people who could not vote and it would be because OrgSync didn’t import in conjunction with Georgia State’s before we started,” Haynes said. “So there were several duplicate accounts, or people have not completed their basic user profile. And just several other things that OrgSync has failed to get done.”
The public was notified through an OrgSync blast, and an email was sent to all SGA senators regarding the election poll’s deadline extension, according to Haynes.
Georgia State graduate student Jessica Owens said she didn’t vote and doesn’t normally check her student email. She said an on campus presence would have helped her be informed about the election season.
“I don’t spend terribly much time on campus. So perhaps more input from other students [on] what’s going on [and] who’s running,” she said. “I definitely should have looked into it more.”
Cara Jones, Georgia State sophomore biology major, also said she didn’t vote. Jones believes more campus presence is needed.
“To be honest, I am thinking about my degree, and I am not really thinking about that,” she said. “I would say just more involvement with being out in the open, more signage, more person to person contact in Plaza, stuff like that.”
SGA advisor Boyd Beckwith said he will be working out technical issues with the SGA Elections Committee in the future.
“I will be working with OrgSync and IS&T to resolve for future voting,” he said.
