Sac state students elect Patrick Dorsey as the new ASI president

Yieng Xiong

At the 2016 Associated Students, Inc. elections, which had the highest voter turnout in 11 years at Sacramento State, one team took a majority win after the results were announced.

After three weeks of ASI candidates campaigning and three days of students voting, a total of 4,462 students—15.5 percent—of the student population voted in the election this year. It is 0.4 percent increase from the previous year’s turnout, which was 15.1 percent.

“I’m definitely happy we broke voter turnout this year,” said Melissa Bardo, the current ASI president. “It’s still a low number in proportion to how many students we have on campus, but compared to a national average in student government elections, it’s definitely a good number.”

Team AMPLIFY, whose platform was innovate, educate and advocate, won all but three positions.

Thaddeus Turner and Juan Arroyo from team INSPIRE both ran uncontested and won for director of undeclared students and director of Union Well, Inc., respectively. Taylor Myers, who was not affiliated with either platform, was elected as the new director of engineering and computer science.

The current governmental affairs director Patrick Dorsey, who also ran uncontested, is the new president-elect. Dorsey said he was surprised at the results, but his team’s efforts did not go to waste.

“I’m proud of my team because I know they sacrificed so much, they believed in our cause, we came together and I think we were successful,” Dorsey said. “I think the other team did an amazing job, too. They were out there campaigning. It’s hard, going through this challenge.”

The two winners from INSPIRE declined to comment on their win.

“They got a fair vote. They all deserve their position,” said sophomore criminal major justice Alyssa Trejo. “Everyone did their own part.”

The club with the most votes was Salsa Loco with 221 votes. The club will receive $2 per each vote as part of the Club Challenge.