EXPLAINER: Your comprehensive guide to what will be on your ballot for Spring 2023
This brief list explores all the candidates for Student Senate and the executive branch up for election in the Spring 2023 election
What are my rights in SG elections?
Quick refresher: If you are a registered UF student paying for at least one credit hour, you can vote.
You do not need to be registered to vote in Florida, a U.S. Citizen, or live in Gainesville
If you are an international student (from outside the U.S.A.), graduate student, or a professional student, you can vote
You have the right to vote for whoever you want
You have the right to fill out your ballot fully or only fill in one section
You have the right to refuse to vote
You want have the right to vote at any SG polling location
You have the right to ask the polling worker questions if you feel something is wrong on your ballot
Your ballot is secret, and how you vote is not subject to public records requests.
What will be on the Spring 2023 ballot for everyone?
There are three items that everyone will have on their ballot: a constitutional amendment, Student Body President/Student Body President on a joint ticket, and Student Body Treasurer:
The constitutional amendment question was passed in the Senate on two meetings, so it will be on the ballot:
Should the Student Body Constitution be amended to remove references to gendered language within the Constitution and replace instances of “his/her” within the Constitution to be changed with “their”?
Yes
No
The Student Body Constitution requires 3/5ths of those voting to vote in the affirmative. That means if you decline to vote on this amendment, it counts against adoption of the amendment (i.e. if 3000 vote ‘yes,’ 800 vote ‘no,’ but 2000 decline to vote on it, then the amendment only has 51.7% approval and fails, even though 2200 more student voted for it).
The Student Body President and Student Body Vice President run on a joint ticket:
Change Party Candidates: Faith Corbett & Kacie Ross
Gator Party Candidates: Olivia Green & Clara Calavia
The Student Body Treasurer runs separately as a different section of the ballot:
Change Party Candidate: Jonner Delgado
Gator Party Candidate: Nyla Pierre
We published profiles of the candidates, which you can find here. Our interview with Green is here and with Corbett is here.
What will differ between Spring 2023 ballots based on my college or credits?
50 Senate seats are up for election, although no one is running for the College of Dentistry seat. Someone could officially declare that they are going to run for the seat as a write-in candidate. Excluding that, the seat will go unfilled. All 50 of these Senate seats are based on your college or credits.
Those candidates designated “elected incumbents” were voted into their seat in Spring 2022. Those candidates designated “non-elected incumbents” hold their seat because they were recommended by the Replacement & Agenda Committee and then confirmed in the Senate to fill a vacant seat, as opposed to having been voted in during the Spring 2022 elections.
Read the below scenarios to assess what Senate seat will be on your ballot.
UNDERGRADUATES:
If you are undergraduate with less than 60 credits…
If you have between 0 and 29 completed credit hours then you can vote for two (2) Undergraduate Freshman Class candidates:
Change Party Candidates: McKenna Chase, Julianne Montes de Oca
Gator Party Candidates: Laurie Wang, Chancellor Wilson
If you have between 30 and 59 completed credit hours then you can vote for five (5) Undergraduate Sophomore Class candidates:
Change Party Candidates: Lee Ann Anderson, Lauren Carlson, Finnley Gibbons, Julianna Gonzalez, Maliha Mahmud
Gator Party Candidates: Isabel Penin, Freddi Rappoport, Tyler Robson, Nathaniel Thomas, Nadia White
If you are an undergraduate with more 60 or more credits…
If you are in the Fischer School of Accounting, then you can vote for one (1) candidate::
Change Party Candidate: N/A
Gator Party Candidate: Patrick Murtha (non-elected incumbent)
If you are in the College of Design, Construction, and Planning, then you can vote for one (1) candidate:
Change Party Candidate: Courtney Mai
Gator Party Candidate: Lauren Whittier
If you are in the College of Agricultural & Life Sciences, then you can vote for two (2) candidates:
Change Party Candidates: Raj Mia, Zoe Richter
Gator Party Candidates: Robert Belcher, Clayton Bush (non-elected incumbent)
If you are in the M.E. Rinker School of Building Construction, then you can vote for one (1) candidate:
Change Party Candidate: N/A
Gator Party Candidate: Samuel Platovsky (non-elected incumbent)
If you are in the Heavener School of Business, then you can vote for three (3) candidates:
Change Party Candidates: Elijah Files, Karl Petzold-Bradley, N/A
Gator Party Candidates: Caroline Kelly, Owen Lekebusch, Isabel Ponce (elected Undergraduate Sophomore Class incumbent)
If you are in the College of Education, you can vote for one (1) candidate:
Change Party Candidate: N/A
Gator Party Candidate: Amanda Lieber
If you are in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, you can vote for four (4) candidates:
Change Party Candidates: Ana Alvarez, Max Banach, Anna Huber*, Alex Simes
Gator Party Candidates: Ellie Jaffa, Jacob Kanfer (elected incumbent), Samantha Kormanyos, Allen Kurian
If you are in the College of the Arts, you can vote for one (1) candidate:
Change Party Candidate: Cec Wood-Barron
Gator Party Candidate: Cameron Relickle
If you are in the College of Health & Human Performance, you can vote for one (1) candidate:
Change Party Candidate: Abrar Hossain
Gator Party Candidate: Ayesha Khuddus
If you are in the College of Public Health & Health Professions, you can vote for one (1) candidate:
Change Party Candidate: Jared Craig*
Gator Party Candidate: Saketh Damera (elected incumbent)
If you are in the College of Journalism & Communications, you can vote for one (1) candidate:
Change Party Candidate: Jacob Sedesse
Gator Party Candidate: Jacey Cable (elected incumbent)
If you are in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, you can vote for eight (8) candidates:
Change Party Candidates: Chalisa Budhai, Asif Islam, Simone Liang, Jordan LoSardo, Caitlyn Mathews, Nathaniel Pelton, Timothy Sinclair, Andrew Taramykin
Gator Party Candidates: Kaitlyn Berger (elected incumbent), John Brinkman (elected incumbent), Cole Buffa, Kenneth Caraballo, Alejandro Grillo, Maya Idiculla, Aaron Rubaii, Aaron Sidhu
If you are in the BSN program of the College of Nursing, then you can vote for one (1) candidate:
Change Party Candidate: Sarah Hinkle
Gator Party Candidate: Emma Antonik
*Previously ran for seat and lost
GRADUATES:
If you are a graduate in a non-professional college (anything other than Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Nursing, Law, Dentistry, or Pharmacy)…
You can vote for twelve (12) candidates:
Change Party Candidates: Aasish Arumilli, Arunabho Basu, Anghelo Gangano, Rachel Hartnett, Vedant Jaiswal, Jagannath Jayanti (non-elected incumbent), Colin Lasch, John Lin, Quoc Pham, Santosh Rananaware, Nikhil Singh, Amisha Singhal
Gator Party Candidates: Mahmoudi Ali, Kate Altman, Bianca Barrios (non-elected incumbent), Alyssa Brentan, Eli Chudnow (non-elected incumbent), Brandon Gerardi, Cole Hautamaki (non-elected incumbent), Alexis Jackson, Cason Schneider, Davis Shockley, Zack Simon, Bradley Thomas
If you are a graduate in a professional college…
If you are in the Levin College of Law, you can vote for one (1) candidate:
Change Party Candidate: Frankie Vitiello
Gator Party Candidate: Tamera Patrick
If you are in the College of Medicine, you can vote for one (1) candidate:
Change Party Candidate: Ricardo Chavez
Gator Party Candidate: Drashti Patel
If you are in the College of Nursing, you can vote for one (1) candidate:
Change Party Candidate: Sarah Hinkle
Gator Party Candidate: Emma Antonik
If you are in the College of Pharmacy, you can vote for one (1) candidate:
Change Party Candidate: Nicholas Brito
Gator Party Candidate: Paola Nieves Viana
If you are in the College of Veterinary Medicine, you can vote for one (1) candidate:
Change Party Candidate: Olivia Smith
Gator Party Candidate: Julia Watson
[The contents of this explainer may change if any candidates are disqualified or any write-in candidates declare their campaigns]