The University of Rhode Island student senate elections drew 131 voters this year, totaling 0.76% of the undergraduate student body.
Voter turnout in student elections has seen a decrease since 2022, where 3.2% of the student body voted, according to election records. Turnout was up to 7.04% in 2023.
The seat for at-large representative, which drew the largest election turnout and was the most highly contested, went to Liam Fleming with 19 votes. He won 15% of the vote.
Leora Derenze won the uncontested seat for off-campus representative, with 28 votes. In the on-campus representative election, where three seats were available, only Erin Farrell was elected. Other potential on-campus senator-elects Adrianna Ahmed, Chirag Hegde, Ryan Capraro and Iver Iverson accepted alternative positions as first-year senators.
The election was promoted via social media, televisions in the Memorial Union and showing the voting QR code at events, according to Elections Chair Sen. Melanie Capraro.
Voting takes place through URInvolved, making it entirely virtual.
“We had like QR codes people could scan that went directly to URInvolved because that would just be easier for people,” Capraro said. “We don’t want to make it too difficult.”
Getting votes isn’t the only hurdle for the Elections Committee, who also have to secure enough senatorial candidates.
“We had a successful election cycle,” Capraro said. “We were able to fill almost every seat.”
Four seats are available to be internally elected, according to Senate President Madison Hinrichs. There are three on-campus seats and one College of Nursing seat.
Fall elections typically draw less voters and candidates, according to Capraro. In a typical fall election, it’s a struggle to procure enough first-year senators to fill vacant first-year representative seats.
This fall, all first-year representative, at-large and off-campus seats have been filled.
In spring elections, all positions, including the presidential and vice presidential seats, are up for grabs which draws in more participants, according to Capraro. In a fall election, only vacancies are up for election.
“There’s usually not as much of a turnout for fall,” Capraro said. “But for spring, because of the presidential candidates I find that people are more interested and we definitely get higher voter turnout for the spring election.”
Time to prepare for the election also factors into participation, according to Capraro.
“[Fall elections] happened very fast,” Capraro said. “There wasn’t a lot of time.”
Planning is already underway for the spring election, according to Capraro and Henrichs.
Participation in student government is key to healthy university democracy, according to Henrichs.
“Our main duty is to essentially represent our constituents,” Hinrichs said. “So we don’t know how to represent them and accurately represent their interests if we aren’t hearing from them.”
