The Missouri Students Association held senator elections March 21 through March 23. A total of 3,276 students voted in the election, Board of Elections Commissioners Chairman Logan Borgsmiller said.

Students were able to vote for senators running for election within their academic college as well as a vote in support or opposition to a referendum on the Good Samaritan policy. The number of students who voted exclusively for senators totaled to 2,325, and the number of students who voted on the referendum totaled to 951, Borgsmiller said.

The total number of student votes was smaller compared to previous elections, he said.

“This number is a bit smaller compared to previous elections,” Borgsmiller said in an email. “However, this is due primarily to the fact that less candidates ran for spots this year. In fact, when analyzing the data, proportionally speaking, this election was identical to those of the past.”

Borgsmiller said 22 candidates ran for senate seats, and all were elected. However, according to MSA bylaws, Senate should be made up of 71 elected senators.

Fourteen of those students were first-time candidates and eight were running for reelection, Borgsmiller said.

MSA Student Affairs Committee Chairman Tyler Ricketts said although he was happy with the voter turnout, there should have been more senators running for election.

“There were a number of academic colleges that didn’t have a single senator run, which is unacceptable to me,” Ricketts said in an email. “A key component of any democracy is competition, and there really wasn’t any in this election.”

MSA President Eric Woods said he was also disappointed in the number of senators that ran for election.

“In past elections, we have had very competitive races in multiple colleges, but this year very few were even contested,” Woods said in an email.

Ricketts said there should have been more advertising of senator elections to students.

“We can always do more to advertise MSA to students, and elections are just one part of that,” Woods said. “I personally would have liked to have seen more advertisement. I’m not really sure what the BEC did to this end.”

Woods said because he has been busy with his own work, the senator elections “snuck up” on him.

“It might have had something to do with the fact that Jake Sloan had to step down as (BEC) chair when he was elected speaker, and the transition may have thrown a wrench in things,” he said.

Borgsmiller said the BEC had done its best to advertise the elections.

“I’m of the opinion that any election or event could always be advertised better, but I firmly believe that BEC did the best they possibly could considering the budgetary constraints they were forced to operate with,” he said.