UC Santa Barbara’s Associated Students Elections Board extended the deadline for voting in the Associated Students External Vice President for Statewide Affairs special election after it was unable to meet the 16 percent voter threshold by Thursday.
The deadline to vote is now Nov. 2.
Only 836 students, or 3.5 percent of the student body, had voted in the special election as of Wednesday evening, according to Elections Board Chair John Paul Renteria.
In order for the election results to be valid, 16 percent of the student body has to vote in the election by the end of the extended week.
At last week’s Associated Students (A.S.) Senate meeting, Renteria and Elections Board member Davis Quan said they created this threshold by looking back at previous special election voting record turnouts.
Renteria and Quan previously said if the election is unable to meet the threshold by the original Thursday deadline, they would extend the deadline by a week.
If the threshold is still not met by Nov. 2, the position of External Vice President for Statewide Affairs (EVPSA) will be left vacant until the Spring Quarter 2019 Election.
The position is currently vacant following the disqualification of EVPSA-elect Mayela Morales last spring.
Currently, the only candidate on the ballot is third-year history of public policy major Madeline Loudon, the runner-up in last spring’s election.
Due to the office’s vacancy over the summer, the Senate passed a resolution in July to split the duties and funds of the office between the External Vice President for Local Affairs, the Student Advocate General, the A.S. President, the A.S. President Proxy and the Lobby Corps Co-Chairs.
Updated [Oct. 21]: This article was updated to include information about the extended deadline for voting.
