YCSC Freshman and Sophomore Elections Held

Brandstatter and Shapiro New Presidents

On Thursday November 13, the YCSC freshman and sophomore class elections were finally held. The elections were originally scheduled for September 25, but had been postponed for nearly fifty days due to complications with the newly implemented BANNER system in the Office of the Registrar that prevented the completion of the official class rosters necessary for the preliminary stage of the election process that requires candidates to obtain student signatures. When the Canvassing Committee did receive those lists, numerous errors were noticed. Therefore, Dror Barber, the chairman of the Canvassing Committee, decided to move forward with the elections using residence hall records instead of the erroneous lists from the Office of the Registrar.

At 12:00 PM, the polling station in the Rubin Lobby opened for the voters of the freshman and sophomore classes. Ballots were disbursed, completed, and returned until the station closed as 3:45 PM. Barber noted that voter turnout was higher than expected and stated that more than sixty-five percent of students in both classes cast votes.

By the evening, all of the newly elected officers were notified and results were posted on the bulletin board in the entrance to Morgenstern Hall. The positions that were filled for both the freshman and sophomore classes were president, vice-president, and secretary / treasurer. Barber, who tallied the votes, claimed that "the results were extremely close in many of the races."

In the freshman class, Pinchas Shapiro defeated Aryeh Lightstone in the presidential contest. He told The Commentator that he is pleased with his victory and intends "to fulfill [his] campaign pledge to be the voice of the students."

In a unique twist of events, Shaya Shtern, whose name did not appear on the ballot, emerged as the victor in the freshman class vice-presidential race which only had one official candidate, Paul Starkman. Shtern was omitted from the ballot since he had failed to hand in the required signatures to the Canvassing Committee prior to the deadline, which he said he was unaware of. Shtern ran a fervent campaign and attempted to take advantage of the small size of the freshman class by personally meeting with many of the students in an effort to inform them of his write-in candidacy. There was no such surprise in the other freshman class single-candidate contest. Brian Glass was elected secretary / treasurer.

The most highly sought after office of the elections was that of the sophomore class president. Five candidates had qualified to appear on the ballot and the campaigning for this race was particularly heated. The platforms of these candidates appeared in The Commentator. Dov Brandstatter was elected president by a narrow margin of victory. He spoke to The Commentator about the campaign tactics which allowed him to win the tight race. "I tried to speak with many of the prospective voters...I attempted to tell them of my ideas and explain why they are realistic and can be implemented." He emphasized that he is already working to achieve his goals and wished to notify the sophomore class that an event is being planned to take place in the near future. Brandstatter is joined by newly elected vice-president Ari Weisen and secretary / treasurer Josh Klein.