After two weeks of rigorous campaigning, the online voting process for candidates vying for student leadership positions begins today.
Students may vote by logging onto the Basement web-site from 9:00 a.m. this morning until 5:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon to vote for Student-Body president and vice-president, Class Council presidents and vice-presidents and representatives to the Class Council, Green Key Society, Committee on Standards and Organizational Adjudication Committee.
In light of the fact that legitimacy and representativeness have been brought forward as key issues in the current campaign, vice-presidential candidate Amit Anand pointed out that high voter turnout will be especially important this year.
"I hope that people realize that only through voting will they make for a truly legitimate student government," he said.
Margaret Kuecker '01, chair of the elections planning and advisory committee, said that she expects turnout to remain steady at about 40 percent, the number around which it has clustered historically.
"But I'm hoping to raise that," she said, adding that campus activism seems to have risen in the past year, as demonstrated by the recent rallies outside of Parkhurst Hall.
Presidential candidate Molly Stutzman '02, who received nearly 60 percent of the vote in a recent poll taken by The Dartmouth, said that, despite her apparent success, she plans to continue to campaign.
"I don't want to rest on my laurels quite yet," she explained.Presidential candidate Michael Sevi '02 said he is certainly not ready to throw in the towel yet, despite the recent poll results.
Comparing his situation to that of U.S. Presidential Candidate Harry S Truman, he said that "In 1948 Truman was behind in the polls to a guy named Dewey, and as you and I know, there's never been a President Dewey."
Given the relatively close poll results for the vice-presidency, Candidate Aly Rahim '02 said he is confident that the position of second-in-command is still up for grabs, adding that he feels the same is true of the presidential contest.
"I'm feeling the vice-presidential race is really, really anyone's race at this point," he said, pointing out that the views of the poll's approximately 1100 respondents may not be indicative of those of the entire student body.
Rahim also said that, in the next two days, he and Sevi hope to mobilize the upperclassmen, especially the 2001's who, even as graduating seniors, are still eligible to vote.
True to the low profile he has kept in the past weeks, presidential candidate Ted Smith '02 declined to comment on his future campaign plans.
Vice-presidential candidate Michael Newton '04, who beat out his competitors by a narrow margin in The Dartmouth's poll, said that, no matter what the final outcome, he plans to continue his involvement in student government.
"I think it's been a really positive campaign and I'm proud of the one that I've run ... No matter how it works out, I'm going to continue to be involved," he said.
Anand was equally unfazed by the polling results.
"In the end, none of the things that have happened before matter; only what people do tomorrow matters," he said last night.
