Special Election results: Lewis, Gutierrez, Rivas, Kashani to take office
The Associated Students (AS) of Santa Monica College (SMC) held a Special Election this week to fill vacant positions on next year’s Board of Directors and Judicial Board. All candidates running on slates, including A&A Impact and Rooted in Action, were elected to their respective positions.
Alicia Lewis on the A&A Impact slate was elected Secretary with 309 votes. Farah Naja received 161 votes, Erick Wang received 157 and Ivan Jacobo received 80.
The other A&A Impact member, Aylen Gutierrez, was elected Director of Publicity with 352 votes. Runner-up Krystal-Rose Uduma received 287.
Nahomy Rivas from Rooted in Action was elected Director of Activities with 419 votes, eclipsing runner-up Andre’a Brown, who received 224.
Leila Kashani, also from Rooted in Action, was elected Director of Sustainability and received the most votes out of any candidate in a contested position: 508. The runner-up Purevdelger Batbaatar received 191.
Finally, the one candidate for Student Justice, Nathan Norman, won by default with 559 votes. Out of about 20,000 SMC students, 806 students were recorded as voters in the election, representing roughly 4% of the student body.
No Campaign Violations were officially reported during this election cycle. However, Student Life Associate Dean Thomas Bui disclosed that the Office of Student Life received multiple “election complaints” during the campaigning and voting periods.
Bui added that all complaints were investigated and cleared, and that all involved candidates were individually warned. He did not further elaborate. Overall, he described the Special Elections as a “pretty clean election.”
Results were announced at an Election Committee meeting on May 16, led by Inter-Club Council (ICC) chair and incoming Vice President Ike Munguntsatsralt. Current AS President David Duncan, nearing the end of his term, was absent.
“I hope everyone who ran applies to be a commissioner,” said Munguntsatsralt.