The results of the 2012-13 General Election results are finally in.

The Associated Students of Linfield College’s new president is junior Nic Miles, who ran unopposed. The new vice president is junior Susana Fajardo, who ran against sophomore Jennifer Derke.

The new president and vice president officially take office May 1.

“It feels great to have the election season over,” Miles said in an e-mail. “My unique situation of running unopposed left me eager to see the official results on Thursday night.”

Sophomore Clara Martinez, the ASLC secretary, organized many of the election events. These included the announcement of the candidates, Q-and-A session and primary elections, which allowed students the chance to win a free, catered dinner with the candidates.

Miles said he was disappointed by the low turnout of voters this year. For the president, there were a total of 357 votes, which is only 22.5 percent of the entire student body. Out of those students, 308 voted for Miles while 49 chose to abstain from voting.

For vice president, 357 students voted and 187 voted for Fajardo, 136 voted for Derke and 34 chose to abstain from voting for either candidate.

While voting for the ASLC candidates, students were also given the option to vote for or against bylaw changes, with the proposed change being a change to special elections. Approximately 351 students voted for this: 257 for yes, 18 for no and 76 chose to abstain from voting.

“The vice presidents ran a clean, friendly race and I’m happy to see [Fajardo] win,” Miles said. The process of elections for the candidates included getting their petitions signed by students, passing the bylaws test, preparing their campaign platforms and attending the Q-and-A sessions.

“I was hoping that another student would campaign against me as a write-in so I could have the opportunity to argue my viewpoints and goals against another candidate,” Miles said.

Rather than doing this, Miles prepared for the elections by spending time reflecting on his experience at Linfield as both a student and a leader.

“I had a huge amount of positive encouragement from friends, teammates, professors and other people around campus,” Miles said.

The new ASLC members are accepting applications for the ASLC Cabinet positions and will spend the upcoming week interviewing applicants and putting the 2012-13 Cabinet together.

“Since I ran unopposed, I decided to focus my time and energy planning for the upcoming Cabinet transition rather than publicize my campaign and the elections in general,” Miles said.

For the next few weeks, Miles said he hopes to plan the budget hearings for the different entities that are funded by the ASLC budget, such as the Linfield Activities Board and Wildcat Productions.

“I hope students and leaders across campus will feel the shift in momentum and energy that will come about,” Miles said. “The fresh faces and attitudes are guaranteed to stir up some great ideas for next year, and I can’t wait to solidify my Cabinet and start planning a productive, fantastic, wild and proactive year of student government, activities and extracurriculars.”

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Samantha Sigler/News editor
Samantha Sigler can be reached at [email protected].