The unopposed SGA presidential candidate poses for a portrait outside Stamp.
With SGA election registration over, Open Party presidential candidate Patrick Ronk will run unopposed in the 2014 election.
The Student Government Association election board released the final list of eligible candidates yesterday afternoon after announcing a three-day extension to the registration deadline Sunday night.
Since the extension, six students signed up to run for legislative positions in the election, raising the total candidates to 30.
“I consider the round a success,” Alex Krefetz, election board chairman, wrote in an email. “Our goals were to fill as many positions as possible in a way open to the entire campus that did not displace the entire elections schedule and did not ask more of new candidates who sought a position.”
Ronk, a sophomore government and politics major, became the Open Party candidate after current SGA student affairs vice president Josh Ratner became ineligible to run.
“I’m not going to lie — I would like competition. Having more ideas on the table is good,” Ronk said. “Competition gives you a public forum to vent good ideas and bad ideas.”
Though Ronk is running unopposed, he said he plans to use his time to reach out for support.
“We’re going to keep campaigning every day — we’re going keep going out and talking to students,” Ronk said. “The point of this was never to only do it to win; it was to actually talk to students and actually get their input.”
New candidates have three days to campaign until voting starts and six until it ends, Krefetz said.
“They obviously got an abbreviated campaign period, but they also got the privilege to register after the deadline,” SGA President Samantha Zwerling said. “So I think it was really up to those candidates to make that cost-benefit analysis.”
Every student running for an executive title is unopposed.
But there are still spots to fill, Krefetz said, such as the education college and the Ellicott community representatives. Zwerling said having these spots empty is common and it can be difficult to find the 40 people needed for every position.
SGA is still letting students fill these spots but will require them to go through an application and interview process before the president and legislature approve.
The Open Party will be the only ticket on the ballot this year. Of the 30 eligible candidates, only outlying off-campus representative nominee Justin Dent and Cambridge representative nominee Emily Reimal are not affiliated with the Open Party.
To start the campaign, the Open Party representatives began surveying students in front of McKeldin Mall and Hornbake Plaza on Tuesday to gather student opinions and “get the vote out,” Ronk said.
“This is the tried and true way to connect to students,” said junior government and politics major Charmaine Wilson-Jones, who is running for vice president of academic affairs. “It’s the rare one-on-one opportunity to find out what students want.”
Between now and election day, Ronk said he expects to talk to 30 to 40 people per hour that he campaigns and estimated he’ll ask 200 to 300 people for their opinions this week.
The campaign will continue today during an SGA-sponsored executive candidate debate at 5 p.m. in the Pyon Su Room in Stamp Student Union, Krefetz said.
“We only have one slate of candidates running, but I do think they will still be able to have a good dialogue about what students care about,” Zwerling said.
