Access sweeps election with little opposition

Gamaliel Ortiz

The 2005 Associated Students Inc. election was all-Access.

Angel Barajas, the newly elected ASI president, as well as ASI’s executive vice president and vice presidents of finance and university affairs and academic affairs, all won on the Access slate.

“We earned it,” Barajas said. “I was just happy and it felt good.”

Executive vice president-elect James Shelby II said that it was an Access sweep because the members gained the trust and support of Sacramento State students through the progress that had been made in this school year.

“I feel, in my opinion, it was a conformation from students of what we did this past year,” Shelby said.

Barajas said the Access slate met twice a week prior to the election to make sure everyone knew his or her role. Barajas said he also campaigned in classrooms by giving speeches.

Although the election was one-sided, Shelby said he was pleased by the way candidates ran and welcomed back anyone that wanted to continue working with ASI.

Brandon Kline, who was running for ASI president for the third time, said that the new online voting was a costly factor.

“I think online voting changed a lot of things,” Kline said. “I received more votes last year for president than all the votes combined in this election. There’s no way to explain it.”

Kline said that Horizon had a split base, whereas Barajas and his slate were unified.

Although he was optimistic that he’d win, Kline was not present for the election results because he said he was exhausted from all the day’s activities.

Kline said that his format was the most realistic agenda and that his opponents caught on to his ideas. Kline said he wasn’t sure if he would come back to ASI but did say he would help out if asked.

ASI Director of Education Nicki Croly said she was not pleased with most of the election results.

“It’s really easy to sweep an election when not that many people run and you have students that are nonchalant about their student government,” Croly said.

Seven seats were won unopposed.

Shelby said that it has been a while since current board members ran again in the following year on the same slate to win.

Shelby believes ASI’s performance from this year was key to getting all of its members back who were seeking another term. He also said he was confident that Measure 1, which passed with approximately 57 percent of the vote, was another indication that ASI did its job right.

Shelby is also looking forward to establishing a grant for graduating students who need help with finances for senior projects, master theses or anything that deals with a university requirement.

“Whatever students have to endure, we want to lessen their burden,” Shelby said.

Julio Velazquez, vice president of finance-elect, said he couldn’t wait to start his new term.

“The team consisted of very experienced ASI people,” Velazquez said about how the elected members beat out Horizon. “It just shows that our slate had the potential to win.”

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Gamaliel Ortiz can be reached at [email protected]