The Long Night of Counting Sheep, I Mean Votes

Tonight, at least three students’ union (that I know of) finished voting today and are in the process of tabulating the results: the University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union, Simon Fraser Students’ Society, and the York Federation of Students.

All three of these races have some interesting aspects to them.

The USSU has been mired in turmoil for the last two years ever since they took up prospective membership in the Canadian Federation of Students, a decision that has split the Council and the student body fairly evenly.  The past two weeks have seen new controversy covered in the campus paper The Sheaf.  The USSU situation has been closely watched by many and there are questions if the USSU is even considered a member of CFS after a court threw out the CFS referendum held there last year.

Evan Cole, former USSU President, reports the results on his blog.  Three bloggers, that I know of, won seats; Evan Cole, Jade Buchanan (both to the Senate), and Josie Steeves to VP (Academic Affairs).  It is worth noting that only a four vote difference separates Lindsey Levesque from Alice Collins (who is also on the CFS National Executive), so I would expect a recount with that small a margin.  Interestingly, the incumbent student union president was beat by abstentions.  Abstentions were very high in this election.  This clearly shows a student body that is unhappy with the current state of the USSU and motivated enough to express it by voting for no one.

The SFSS had its own share of turmoil this past year.  Seven members of the executive were impeached by students in the fall, eventually the case went to the BC Supreme Court and a by-election was held in December.  There are two referendum questions on the ballot here as well.  One is to have an autonomous Graduate Student Society and the other is for the SFSS to leave the CFS.
Results are not expected till tomorrow afternoon and will be posted on a well designed student union election webpage.
(I like this layout more than most federal election media sites, very impressive)

The YFS election is interesting because of the size of the school, the fact that YFS elections are usually well contested and that there is one independent in the race this year.  It is unknown when results will be available.