CUSU Elections Liveblog

Votes have been cast, counted, and the results are coming in – it’s CUSU election results night.

The 2014 elections have been the least contested in living memory as most positions only have one candidate standing.

Hopefuls for the positions of CUSU President, Women’s Officer, and Education Officer are fighting an electoral battle just between themselves and Re-Open Nominations (RON), which has attracted some attention with its own separate viral campaigns.

The position for Grad Union President has no candidates and there are only four NUS delegates running for five places.

But who’s going to win? Will outspoken CUSU-hater Charlie Bell turn up to spoil the ballots? Will Presidential hopeful Helen Hoogewerf-McComb leave tonight as the new student union boss or will RON have his day?

Stay tuned on The Tab for updates as results come in on our election night liveblog.

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We’ve shot our electoral load here at CUSU and all the results are in. 

Here’s a round-up of tonight:

– Helen Hoogewerf-McComb is elected as CUSU President and will start this October.

– The Sabbs are: Amelia Horgan (Women’s), Helena Blair (Access and Funding), and Rob Robertson (Education).

– A pathetic 14.1% of Cambridge students voted which is roughly 3000 out of 21,000 eligible voters.

Speaking to The Tab, Flick Osborn said of her time so far, “I have really enjoyed this job, I find it really rewarding and it challenges me on a daily basis”

Advising Helen on her new role, she told us “the job is so big that it’s really easy to get stuck in office sometimes – but it’s really important to go out and be with students. That’s the bit of job I enjoy most.”

One final tweet for the night:

Helen won CUSU more than comfortably so fuck the Tab! Fuck the tab and fuck Charlie Bell and fuck their childish… http://t.co/4lhpW2CNx0

— Chris Powers (@Chris2Powers) March 5, 2014

23:50 NUS delegates have been announced: Kevin Chang, Mark Chonofsky and Rosalyn Old have been elected. Mordecai Paechter, also known as ‘Marxist Mo’ lost.

23:42 CDE showing their support for Amelia:

! Victory ! Congratulations to @ameliasylviae elected CUSU Women’s Officer 2014/15. Educate / #Horganise / Agitate pic.twitter.com/a9nwQGyktd

— CamDefendEducation (@CamDefendEd) March 5, 2014

23:40 Flick Osborn has a sit-down with Charlie Bell to bury the hatchet. Charlie doesn’t look impressed.

23:38 Helen, the president-elect revels in post-election bliss “I’m feeling great! The turnout was much better than we expected. I put myself forward because I believe I’m the right person for the job and I’m glad that students agreed!”

23:34 Here’s the breakdown of student voting. Only 3059 votes were cast out of over 21,000 students. That means there was only a 14.1% turnout for elections. 390 votes – over a tenth of the ballot – were spoiled.

Speaking to Flick Osborn, the outgoing CUSU president, she said “Compared with previous years turnout has been lower and this is partly down to having fewer candidates than normal.

“I’m hopeful that lots of people who are involved in the RON campaign stand for the by-elections next term. We hope to see improved turnout next term.”

23:17 Helen Hoogewerf-McComb wins the position of CUSU President! She wins with 1586 votes while RON gained 1089. A human candidate only won by 500 votes!

Cries of “fuck The Tab” rang out as Helen won.

Ever-present Charlie Bell said “How terribly exciting! We just found out who next year’s bunch of total non-entities will be! They must be delighted they beat a non-existent opponent. Just.”

23:14 New results! Access and Funding officer goes to Helena Blair who wins the second round of voting with 1419 votes! President next.

22:54 Some positive reactions to the results:

cannot BELIEVE amelia horgan has been made prime minister of cambridge! #women #power #womeninpower

— Mollie Wintle (@molliewintle) March 5, 2014

22:40 Outgoing CUSU Coordinator Dom Weldon and ex-Prez Roz Old drink to happy memories.

22:38 Richard Jones is elected as the University Council Representative! Go Richard! He wins 1195 votes, beating RON who won 842 votes and Natalia Kudryashova with 659 votes.

22:11 Amelia Horgan is voted in as Women’s Officer! She won with 613 votes, 303 going to RON.

Amelia says “A big thank you to everyone who supported me. I look forward to working as Women’s Officer and making the University a less sexist place.”

22:08 FIRST ELECTION RESULTS ARE IN! Rob Richardson is elected as Education Officer with 1280 votes.

He’s also been voted in as the Uni General Board undergrad member. RON received 972 votes.

omg this is new labour all over again #cusuelections #1997 #tony

— Mollie Wintle (@molliewintle) March 5, 2014

21:53 And introducing Amelia Horgan herself, sole candidate for Women’s Officer.

21:45 The Tab‘s Debate Editor Tim Squirrell points out a mistake in Laurie’s grammar.

I think you’ll find it’s ‘fetishisation’ @CUSUonline #CUSUelection

— Tim Squirrell (@timsquirrell) March 5, 2014

Cheers Tim!

21:40 Lucy Wilson, first year MML student says, “Rid me of this paper! The paper vote is out-dated and damaging to the environment!”

3rd year student Laurie here to support Amelia Horgan pipes up, “The paper vote is essential to the fetishism of democracy!”

21:33 Women’s Officer candidate Amelia Horgan (with the inspired campaign hashtags of #horganise and #ameliorate) says “I’m heading over to the grad union now. I have no idea what to expect. See you on the other side!”

21:31 Charlie Bell breaks a glass here and the room goes silent with rage.

Also apologies to Flick Osborn, whose name we misspelled earlier. Sorry Flick!

21:18 Democracy in action!

The vote count is underway but boxes are still coming in. Greenwich on General Election Day this is not.

21:06 Dr Kirsty Allen, Head of the Uni Registrary office who is here tonight making sure everything runs smoothly says “I feel like I’m in Groundhog Day.”

21:01 “I made an effort to speak to the CUSU election candidates, and I’m hopeful for them,” says vote counter Chris Halcrow, who’s also Chair of Robinson College Student Association.

“I have faith and didn’t vote RON. And Charlie Bell is a knob.”

20:58 Votes have yet to be counted! The ballots that have come in have only been confirmed as present, and will counted shortly.

20:46 The atmosphere sours and CUSU workers look on in dismay as the terrible twosome Tab columnist Charlie Bell and ex-CUCA chairman Callum Wood arrive. One vote counter gives a sarcastic “yay.”

Callum, who calls students involved in CUSU “lizards” is behind one of the RON campaigns. He tells us “I’m not RON, but I have come to bear witness for RON. For those who are to be defeated tonight, there will be a weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

20:33 A CUSU worker started reading out the colleges whose votes have yet to come in before President Flick Osborne said with a glance in The Tab‘s direction asked to make the discussion quieter.

20:26 The candidates standing in this year’s intense election are sinking a few pre-match beers while hard-working Sabbatical Officers and CUSU staff count up the votes.

20:04 CUSU is a hive of activity, vote counting is underway and ballot boxes are still coming in from colleges. Get settled in for a long night of election fever on The Tab.

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Additional reporting by Francesca Ebel