Undergraduate Student Government Election Results
On Thursday, May 7, the undergraduate student body voted in the Spring 2020 student government elections. The night of the elections, the Wilf Canvassing Committee and the Beren Election Committee, which oversee student government elections, shared the results of the elections with The Commentator.
In total, 745 out of 1196 eligible Wilf Campus students voted, or 62.3%. Turnout this year was up 5.6% from 56.7% in the Spring 2019 elections and up 3.5% from 58.8% in the Spring 2018 elections. Neither voter turnout information nor a breakdown of election results are released for the Beren elections.
The following are the results of the elections, with per-candidate vote totals following the results for the Wilf Campus elections:
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Wilf Campus
SOY President: Akiva Poppers
SOY Vice President: Zev Jarashow
SOY PR Secretary: Zachary Israeli
SOY MYP Representative: Yoni Laub
SOY BMP Representative: Jonathan Malek
SOY IBC Representative: Baruch Lerman
SOY JSS Representative: Not elected, as no candidates appeared on the ballot, and no write-in candidate received the minimum 20 votes necessary to win.
SSSBSC President: Adam Baron
SSSBSC Vice President: Zach Tuchman
SSSBSC Secretary/Treasurer: Sammy Lekowsky
YCSA President: Ari Lowy
YCSA Vice President: Jonah Chill
YCSA Secretary/Treasurer: David Lifschitz
YSU President: Zachary Greenberg
YSU Vice President of Class Affairs: Josh Weinstein
YSU Vice President of Clubs: Jared Benjamin
YSU Senior Class Representative: Benjy Halpern
YSU Junior Class Representative: Elazar Abrahams
Six proposed amendments to the Wilf Student Government Constitution appeared on the ballot, and four of the amendments garnered the three-fifths majority necessary for ratification. The following amendments were passed:
Amendment #1 (Revised, Restructured and Updated Constitution)
Amendment #2 (Katz School Representation)
Amendment #3 (Makor Representation)
Amendment #4 (Transparency of GA Funds)
Breakdown of Wilf Campus Results
The Canvassing Committee released the breakdown of each race, which is summarized below. In races in which candidates officially appeared on the ballot, all of the candidates and their vote tallies are listed below; for positions where the victor was a write-in candidate, only the winning candidate is listed:
SOY President
Akiva Poppers (write-in) - 179
Zachary Lent (write-in) - 178
After being declared ineligible by the Canvassing Committee, Akiva Poppers petitioned the Wilf Student Court to overrule the Canvassing Committee's determination. By a 3-2 vote, the Wilf Student Court declared Poppers to be eligible for the SOY presidency.
Regarding their original disqualification of Poppers, the Canvassing Committee released the following statement to The Commentator:
“There are certain rules in the Wilf Campus constitution regarding the required class standing of the elected SOY President. When we heard about Akiva Poppers’ campaign, the Canvassing Committee spent a good amount of time looking into the particulars of the constitution, and after much discussion, we decided that Akiva Poppers’ class standing would very likely make him constitutionally ineligible to win the SOY Presidency. We informed Poppers of this decision and, he, nonetheless, continued his campaign. Should he receive a majority of write-in votes, the Canvassing Committee will name the candidate with the next highest number of votes as SOY President.”
SOY Vice President
Zev Jarashow (write-in) - 136
Shmuel Adler (write-in) - 92
SOY PR Secretary
Justin Goldman (write-in) - 32
Zachary Israeli (write-in) - 32
After a tie vote in the election, 20 members of the four current Wilf student councils voted 12-8 to award the seat to Zachary Israeli.
SOY MYP Representative
Yoni Laub - 307
SOY SBMP Representative
Jonathon Malek - 119
SOY IBC Representative
Baruch Lerman - 99
SOY JSS Representative
No candidates appeared on the ballot, and no write-in candidate received the minimum 20 votes necessary to win.
SSSBSC President
Adam Baron - 146
Dovie Solomon - 104
Ely Bloch - 76
SSSBSC Vice President
Zach Tuchman - 255
SSSBSC Secretary/Treasurer
Sammy Lekowsky - 159
Yaakov Schreier - 137
YCSA President
Ari Lowy - 209
Albert Dweck (write-in) - 39
Josh Leichter (write-in) - 21
YCSA Vice President
Jonah Chill - 250
YCSA Secretary/Treasurer
David Lifschitz - 140
Daniel Melool - 116
YSU President
Zachary Greenberg - 578
YSU Vice President of Class Affairs
Josh Weinstein - 554
YSU Vice President of Clubs
Jared Benjamin - 573
YSU Senior Class Representative
Benjy Halpern - 263
YSU Junior Class Representative
Elazar Abrahams - 174
Amendments to Wilf Constitution
Four of the amendments on the ballot received the required three-fifths majority, or 60%, necessary for ratification.
Amendment #1 (Revised, Restructured and Updated Constitution)
PASSED (69.03% voted yes)
Yes - 428
No -192
Amendment #2 (Katz School Representation)
PASSED (72.19% voted yes)
Yes - 431
No - 166
Amendment #3 (Makor Representation)
PASSED (78.74% voted yes)
Yes - 474
No - 128
Amendment #4 (Transparency of GA Funds)
PASSED (77.70% voted yes)
Yes - 467
No - 134
Amendment #5 (GA Club-Voting Deadline)
NOT PASSED (50.33% voted yes)
Yes - 306
No - 302
Amendment #6 (Anti-Discrimination Policy)
NOT PASSED (35.84% voted yes)
Yes - 238
No - 426
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Beren Campus
SCWSC President: Shira Schneider
SCWSC Vice President of Academic Affairs: Shoshana Wallach
SCWSC Vice President of Clubs: Talia Leitner
SCWSC Vice President of Public Relations: Tamar Guterson
SCWSC Treasurer: Danielle Pasternak
SYMSSC President: Alex Brody
SYMSSC Vice President of Clubs: Shaiel Soleimani
SYMSSC Vice President of Public Relations: Abigail Lerman
TAC President: Nina Siegel
TAC Vice President of Shabbat: Eliana Feifel
TAC Vice President of Speakers: Rivka Barnett
TAC Vice President of Public Relations: Michal Herman
TAC Vice President of Chessed: Chaiy Bodek
Senior Class President: Leah Joshowitz
Senior Class Vice President: Nechama Levie
Junior Class President: Hadas Hirt
Junior Class Vice President: Rina Melincoff
Sophomore Class President: Shaina Matveev
Editor's Note: This article was updated after the Wilf Student Court declared Akiva Poppers to be eligible to assume the SOY presidency. The original article reported that Zachary Lent won the election, as per the Canvassing Committee's disqualification of Poppers at the time.
