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Class of 2027 CC Representatives Elected as USG Reports Lowest Engagement in Eight Years

Beyond low turnout, this autumn election cycle also saw lower numbers of candidates, with only one candidate running to fill a College Council seat to represent the Class of 2027.

By Feifei Mei

November 1, 2023

Ezinne Mba

Left to right: Class of 2027 College Council representatives Alex Fuentes, Kevin Guo, Andrea Pita Medez, Trinity Bledsoe, and Demetrius Daniel.

Five Class of 2027 College Council representatives and one Class of 2025 representative were elected to Undergraduate Student Government (USG) on Friday, October 20, in an election marked by the lowest number of candidates running in eight years.

First-years Kevin Guo (236 votes), Demetrius Daniel (229 votes), Alex Fuentes (220 votes), Trinity Bledsoe (129 votes), and Andrea Pita Medez (124 votes) were the five candidates chosen for seats on the Class of 2027 College Council from a field of nine who appeared on the ballot. Voting was open from October 16 to October 20.

Daniel and Bledsoe had open complaints filed against them by the Elections and Rules (E&R) Committee because of failures to submit timely budgets. The committee unanimously found that these constituted minor infractions and issued each a 3 percent vote deduction.

Austin Steinhart

Vote totals, both ballot and write-in, for College Council Class of 2027.

USG also held a special election to fill a vacancy in the Class of 2025’s College Council lineup after Danielle Lopez, who had been elected in the spring via write-in votes, resigned. Chad Coen, the only candidate who filed a petition to run, won the election.

The representatives will serve for the duration of the 2023–24 academic year. The next round of elections will take place no later than the fifth week of spring quarter.

“We’re just really excited about the passion and vision these first-year reps have and have a lot of confidence that USG is in good hands this year and moving forward,” USG president Jefferson Lind wrote in an email to The Maroon.

After the elections, Lind and USG executive vice president Ariana Ukaonu met with the newly elected representatives.

“[We] were thrilled to see the passion they shared with us regarding maintaining the Lyft program, as well as some really interesting lanes of advocacy regarding student programming accessibility USG hadn’t pursued in the past,” Lind wrote. “[The] first-year representatives are interested in establishing funding for [house activities] programming through more administrative support.”

Overall candidate numbers and voter turnout for this election cycle were significantly lower than those seen in previous fall CC elections. There were only nine first-year candidates on the ballot compared to 15 the previous year, and just one candidate applied to be on the ballot for the special election for the Class of 2025.

“Overall, this [cycle saw] the lowest student engagement seen in autumn elections for some time,” second-year Nevin Hall, the chair of USG’s Elections and Rules Committee, wrote in an email to The Maroon.

“[We have] some plans in the works on the electoral regulation end to stimulate further interest in USG, including allowing limited political parties and endorsements.”

Nikhil Patel

The number of first-year candidates for College Council by year from 2016 through 2023.

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About the Contributors

Feifei Mei, Grey City Reporter

Feifei Mei is a student in the College from Singapore, planning on majoring in Fundamentals and Economics. She enjoys debating obscure grammar rules and the relative merits of different citation styles, as well as thinking and talking about interesting people and places. She writes for News and Grey City and also does copy. In her free time, she reads mainstream classic novels and watches mainstream indie films. She also does parliamentary debate and heads the Singapore Society.

Nikhil Patel, Lead Developer

Nikhil Patel is a third-year majoring in Computational and Applied Math and Computer Science from Libertyville, Illinois. He is a Lead Developer for the Maroon's Data Team. Aside from being a huge computer nerd, he is interested in education, the environment, and free and open access to information. His main hobby is origami; if you happen to spot him in public, it’s likely that he’ll be folding a square of paper into something more interesting (usually a smaller, more complicated square of paper).

Austin Steinhart, Lead Developer

Austin Steinhart is a second-year graduate student studying the intersection of computer science and public policy. He works as a Lead Developer in the technology section of The Maroon. He started working at The Maroon to continue his interest in using human-machine collaborative systems and data storytelling to help communities build power and create lasting change. Outside of The Maroon, Austin enjoys cheap concerts, reading another niche nonfiction book, and cooking yummy meals with friends.