Despite popularity, The Green Initiative Fund fails due to a lack of voter turnout
By SONORA SLATER — campus@theaggie.org
In this fall’s election, seven candidates ran for six seats in ASUCD Senate, one candidate ran for External Affairs Vice President, one candidate ran for International Student Representative and one candidate ran for Transfer Student Representative.
Voter turnout was 5.58% of UC Davis’s undergraduate population — a 132.5% increase from 2.4% last fall.
Celene Aridin ran uncontested for External Affairs Vice President and was elected.
Keven Zhou ran uncontested for International Student Representative and was elected.
Logan Ueno ran uncontested for Transfer Student Representative and was elected.
For Senate, Stephen Fujimoto, Jacob Klein, Gaius Ilupeju, Zeki Xu, Aarushi Raghunathan and Erek Leschyn were elected.
The Green Initiative Fund fee referendum, which sought to reinstate a $3.50 fee per student per quarter for the 2023-2024 school year in order to offer students funding to develop and launch innovative sustainability projects within the UC Davis campus community, did not pass. Although 79.85% of voters voted yes on the referendum, it ultimately failed to meet the required 20% voter turnout threshold.
CA #77, which moves the elections of the ASUCD Transfer Student Representative and International Student Representative from fall quarter to spring quarter, passed with 85.91% of the vote.
CA #78, which moves the election of the External Affairs Vice President from fall quarter to spring quarter, passed with 82.31% of the vote.
CA #80, which establishes an ASUCD Elections Officer to handle administrative aspects of the elections process and lead promotion of each election, and changes the composition of the Elections Committee, passed with 95.87% of the vote.
CA #81, which moves ASUCD spring general elections from the seventh week of the quarter to the fourth week of the quarter in order to enact student fee initiatives more efficiently, passed with 80.94% of the vote.
Written by: Sonora Slater — campus@theaggie.org
