The SA got the election right this time. The totals came back valid and the SA has 40 new senators.

Thursday was the last day to vote for senators. A total of 669 votes were penned overall, with 380 votes cast Wednesday and 289 votes cast Thursday. Only 3.2 percent of the ballots were invalidated.

SA Elections Commissioner Mary Sindelar said they were very pleased to see so few invalid votes come back. “We account the lowering of invalid votes to increased advertising, and word of mouth,” she said.

The verified winners of the election by district are as follows:

ISTRICT 1

‘Veronica Drake – 102

‘Julie Gentis – 87

DISTRICT 2

‘Jason Pomatto – 201

‘Stacey Hagemeyer – 195

‘Lisa Donohue – 186

‘Paul Grane – 161

‘Herbert Garcia – 95

‘Gino Barrto – 82

‘Mouneer Ahmad – 53

‘Jamal Ali Tayh – 51

ISTRICT 3

‘Andrea Vacker – 120

‘Dawn Lowry – 102

‘Daniel Gaddis – 95

‘Joe O’Brien – 87

ISTRICT 4

‘Nicole Howell – 123

‘Dana Dite – 104

‘Robert Nowak – 98

‘Eric Grice – 96

‘Annette LeDonne – 64

‘Asian Mitchell – 62

‘John McElvogue – 52

‘Janis Rodola – 47

ISTRICT 5

‘Abe Andrzejewski – 207

‘Nelson Perez – 141

Results of the write-in candidates have been delayed in order to verify their enrollment on this campus, check their grade point averages and verify if they were written into the correct districts.

Overall, the turnout was lower this time than last. SA Public Relations Adviser Anna Bicanic said the reasons for the lower voter turnout were, “People don’t feel the need to come out a second time, are confused about the people on the ballot and felt their vote wasn’t needed because of the lack of competition.”

Bicanic said, in congratulating the new senators, “I hope all of our new senators are ready to work hard this year and I encourage them to get involved with the committees and issues presented to the Senate.” She also said she gives them, “lots of credit for taking the initiative and offering their time to the students of NIU.”

SA Vice President Anastasia Criscione said, “We’ve got an extensive orientation prepared for the senators. We feel that this will help the senators become acclimated to the SA and how the meetings will be run.”

Write-in winners will be announced later today. The SA orientation meeting will be held this Sunday at noon in Room 405 of the Holmes Student Center.