Election results name Bedard, Shah new Senate president, VP

02/27/09 - The race for the University of Rhode Island Student Senate President and Vice President ended yesterday with Dave Bedard and Vidhi Shaw on top.Six weeks earlier, the campaigning began between two qualified teams armed with Student Senate experience. Unofficially, Bedard and Shaw defeated Chairman Maxwell Adpoju and Chairwoman Amanda Clarke 812 to 630 votes. All of the election results are unofficial until the senate votes on the outcome in two weeks.

One thousand, five hundred and four students came out to vote in this semester's election. Earlier this week Campus Affairs Chair and head of the Elections Committee Amanda LaRocca's said her goal was 1,500. The past years have roughly stayed around 1,000 according to LaRocca.

"The turnout was just absolutely amazing," Senator Jon Aronoff said.

LaRocca believed the candidates were the reason so many came out to the polls. She also heard feedback that the newly added "I Voted" stickers helped spread the word.

The new president Bedard said he was very excited and pleased about the turnout from the student body and his victory.

"I want to thank everyone that came out and voted for Vidhi and I," Bedard said. "And thanks to Max and Amanda who were great opponents."

Chairman of Cultural Affairs Adepoju and Chairwoman of SOARC ran on the platform of wanting more campus programming, trying to take on the issue of the Narragansett orange sticker ordinance, and obtaining a more accessible campus.

Now President Bedard and Vice President Shaw will leave their positions as vice president and treasurer, respectively. During the campaign their platform was continuing work on the Narragansett sticker issue, advocating for multicultural and Greek students, and transitioning new club sports teams.

Getting people to come vote has been a problem in the past, but this year word just spread, according to students.

Freshman Ryan Wilson said, "I heard about it through word of mouth."

When asked why he decided to vote, and how he made his decision about who to vote on Wilson responded, "I am just executing my constitutional right, and I just let fate guide me."

Along with standing out in the bitter cold shaking hands the candidates used a popular social networking tool, Facebook, to ask for votes.

"I got a message on Facebook saying to vote for URI [president]," sophomore Andrew Horn said. His decision on who to vote for was a bit more personal "I had an experience with one of the candidates, where she showed good leadership," Horn continued.

Freshman Tom Seckel said made his decision on the basis of who was pro wet campus, and who would help out the fraternities. For whatever reason it was, the URI students came out in force and exercised their right.

Along with voting for the presidents, a referendum on the presidential ballot pertaining to raising the student activities tax $8 was voted through last night with an unofficial final count at 1,044 students yes and 411 no.

For the bill to pass, 5 percent of the total undergraduate student body needed to vote on it. Then the majority of the 5 percent wins, either passing or denying the amendment.

None of the other candidates were available for comment after the results had been tallied close to midnight.