TCU Special Election results

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate held a special election yesterday to fill one seat on the TCU Judiciary and the Women's Center representative position.

According to Tufts Elections Commission (ECOM) Chair Paige Newman, 10.95 percent of the eligible student body voted, with 636 students voting in the election.

In elections open to the entire Tufts student body, Arman Smigielski was elected to the TCU Judiciary out of six candidates. Smigielski, a sophomore, will join the six members already on the Judiciary.

The remaining open two Community Representative positions were filled in the election, with sophomore Walae Hayek elected as the new Women's Center Representative over one other candidate and sophomore Janet Nieto, who was running unopposed, becoming the new Latino Community Representative.

Judiciary Treasurer Michael Kalmans, a junior, explained at the Sept. 27 Senate meeting that the position on the TCU Judiciary opened up because a member of the judiciary body has resigned the week before. The special election was also held because no one had run for the Women's Center and Latino community representative positions during the September election.

The election turnout was higher than that of most special elections that the Senate has held in the past, according to Newman, a senior.

ECOM Head of Public Relations Ania Ruiz echoed this, saying that there was greater interest in this semester's special election.

"The [Judiciary] candidates were very widespread grade-wise...so there was a lot of interest [from] the entire community," Ruiz, a sophomore, said.

She added that she was pleased with the increased interest in the Community Representative positions, which historically have had difficulties being filled. A few of the interested candidates had missed previous deadlines for the September election, which is why they ultimately ran for the special election, Ruiz said.

Ruiz said the results of the special election reflected that there is greater interest in Senate in general.

"It's good to see...that more people are in the know about how to get involved with student government," she said.