FIRED UP! votes had significant impact in election outcome
By Jeong Park
May 12, 2014 2:09 a.m.
FIRED UP! candidates did not win any offices in this year’s student government election, but the slate’s supporters played a significant role in determining the outcome of many of the races for a seat on council.
Although third party slates have run candidates in many recent Undergraduate Students Association Council elections, FIRED UP! is one of very few slates in recent history to emerge and run candidates for all contested positions. Because of this, the way votes were counted played a much heavier role this year than in the past.
To determine a winner in each officer race, USAC uses rank-choice voting, where voters rank candidates from first choice to last choice. Voters’ first choice rankings are initially counted. If no candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes, the candidate with the lowest number is eliminated from the race.
Then, the eliminated candidate’s second choice votes are reassigned as first-choice votes and distributed between remaining candidates. This continues until a run-off between two candidates is created, and whoever has the majority of first-choice votes wins.
FIRED UP! members originally planned to run candidates with LET’S ACT, but formed their own coalition after they felt LET’S ACT! members did not accurately represent certain student groups during their candidate selection process, among other reasons.
After FIRED UP! candidates were eliminated first in every race, their votes were redistributed to decide the winners in the election. Though FIRED UP! and LET’S ACT! members align on numerous platforms and both consider themselves progressive slates, redistributed FIRED UP! candidate votes showed a significant amount of support for Bruins United candidates.
While redistributed FIRED UP! votes ultimately helped LET’S ACT! candidates claim higher up executive positions on council, they failed to boost LET’S ACT! candidates in many other positions.
In races for positions such as president or internal vice president, about half of FIRED UP! voters ranked LET’S ACT! candidates as their second choice, and only about 30 percent of FIRED UP! voters ranked Bruins United candidates as their second choice.
In races for positions such as Financial Supports commissioner and Academic Affairs commissioner, FIRED UP! voters nearly split between the two remaining slates when asked to designate their second-choice candidate. This resulted in LET’S ACT! candidates failing to make up their deficits of votes, leaving Bruins United candidates to take both positions on council.
Tyler Cherry, the campaign manager for LET’S ACT! and a third-year political science student, said FIRED UP! had a significant impact in the election.
“Unfortunately for most of the races, their preferences did negatively affect us, but that’s not something to dwell on,” Cherry said.
Anh Nguyen, a FIRED UP! campaign manager and a fourth-year global studies student, said she thinks the focus on FIRED UP! votes distracts from the main purpose of the slate’s campaign and message.
“Our biggest contribution shouldn’t be all this focus on numbers and how we split the vote, but what kind of message we brought about USAC,” Nguyen said.
