Earlier this week, Spinnaker spoke with Deputy Elections Commissioner Andrew Wills about recent changes in leadership, as well as his thoughts about the upcoming election. With the resignation of Darryl Boyer, Wills is now the Interim Elections Commissioner. 

Wills discussed the impact of Boyer’s time in office and how Boyer prepared him for the role he now holds:

“With Darryl bringing me into the Office of Elections this past summer, I got the opportunity to see the full Fall election, how elections run, and I’ve gotten to experience more or less everything he’s been able to experience, as far as going through the elections. It’s been able to prepare me for the spring election and how everything runs, from the ballot to candidates,” said WIlls. 

Wills said that Boyer was able to organize the Office of Elections into a successful unit overall. Darryl was able to lay the foundation for contested elections, and brought more diversity into student government elections.

This upcoming election already boasts five political parties and Wills says that “it’ll make for a really fun and interesting debate overall.” Wills explained that there will be a variety of ways for students to participate in the election beyond simply voting. 

“With the debate, we have our student candidate form. With that, parties will be able to answer questions for students about what they wanna know. It’s more of a Q/A opportunity for students to meet the parties and candidates. That will be at the Osprey Plaza […] Overall, we want to encourage all students to vote and then make sure they come out to the student candidate form, as well as try to watch the debate and submit questions so that we just make sure our future leaders are able to answer the questions, and see what students want to have happening on our campus so that they can be representative leaders,” said Wills.

A full timeline of the UNF elections can be found here. Spinnaker will continue to keep you updated.

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