UPDATED: Tuesday, April 10 at 11:21 p.m.

About 12 percent of the Syracuse University undergraduate student population has already voted in Student Association elections, as of Tuesday evening at about 5 p.m.

Sophia Faram, chair of SA’s board of elections and membership, said 1,787 students have voted.

Faram said turnout must reach 10 percent of the undergraduate student population for the SA vote to be considered valid. In the first 24 hours of polls opening, SA reached that threshold, Faram said.

She said she hopes to break SA’s voter turnout record, which is 31 percent of the undergraduate student body. But, realistically, SA will probably only get a turnout of 20 percent, Faram said. The 31 percent record was set in 2013.

Students this year will vote for SA’s president and vice president as a pair, comptroller and several assembly members. Also on the organization’s ballot, accessible via MySlice, is an amendment to update the SA constitution to “better reflect current practices” and a vote on whether to continue supporting the New York Public Interest Research Group with a $3 fee.

Faram said SA has been coordinating a social media campaign to promote voting. Organization representatives have also been speaking to students at different schools and colleges about the election. No campus-wide email was sent Monday by SA leadership to announce the start of voting.

SA President James Franco only detailed the election’s timeline in a campus-wide email sent on Monday, April 2 with the subject line “SA Debate.” Eric Evangelista, SA’s 60th legislative president, sent a campus-wide email to announce the start of voting on the first day of last spring’s election.

Voting closes at 11:59 p.m. Thursday. The voting link can be found on MySlice under the “Student Services” tab.

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, the day former Student Association President Eric Evangelista sent a campus-wide email detailing SA elections last spring was misstated. Evangelista sent the email on the second day of elections. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on April 10, 2018 at 9:08 pm

Contact Kennedy: krose100@syr.edu | @KennedyRose001