So what happened after the Fall 2023 Student Government elections? (recap)
The UF Student Government Fall 2023 election was a historic election: Gator Party rebranded to Vision Party after losing two elections in a row, the election maps were gerrymandered in favor of Vision Party, leaked screenshots exposed Florida Blue Key orchestrating a sticker collection scheme, and allegations of financial corruption were made. The final turnout broke the record for a fall election: 12,166.
Just as uf_politics predicted when Vision Party originally gerrymandered the election maps, the difference in off-campus votes was roughly 1,500 in favor of Vision. But what happened after this historic fall election? And what was the fallout of all this drama?
The Consequences of Gerrymandering
During the fall elections, Vision Party broke decades of precedent to abolish the district model in favor of a new, gerrymandered at-large model. This change was made because they had lost two elections in a row, supported by a stacked UF Supreme Court. The decision appalled one justice to the point she made the rare move of releasing a dissenting opinion.
While the former district maps ensure equitable distribution of off-campus representation, the at-large model has led to a supermajority of off-campus representation residing in the former districts housing Fraternity and Sorority Row. Based on self-reported data from senators elected in fall, 20 off-campus senators reside in the former District A (Sorority Row), 8 reside in the former District B (Fraternity Row), 4 reside in the former District D, 0 reside in the former District C, and 5 have no address available.
In short, 28 of the 37 elected off-campus Vision senators reside in the former districts housing Fraternity or Sorority Row. The former District C, which includes apartment complexes to the west of campus, has no representation in the UF student senate.
The UF Student Senate: Total Gridlock
Despite Vision Party’s campaign promise to break gridlock, the UF Student Senate failed to conduct any business after the fall elections last semester due to a lack of senators attending senate. The breakdown of senator absence by party is present below:
The failure to conduct business, including validating the fall elections, was caused by a critical lack of senators attending. For most of the senate meetings following the fall 2023 elections, Vision senators failed to attend meetings, likely because of a disagreement with Change Party. In October, both parties negotiated a deal to ensure the speedy transfer of power. The deal included provisions against gerrymandering, included Marston as a polling location, and mandated revisions for the budgeting process.
Both parties publicly announced support for the agreement on October 28th, but Vision Party removed its support for the deal. At the following senate meetings, many Vision senators did not attend. In the last senate meeting of the fall semester, validation of the election results finally occurred because a joint committee appointed new senators to ensure quorum.
Florida Blue Key: Leadership Shake Up
Florida Blue Key, the organization that runs the political machine behind Vision Party, was exposed for running a sticker collection scheme as well as financial corruption regarding ACCENT Speakers and Student Government Productions. Leaked screenshots showed Jared Weingard, a former executive producer of Gator Growl, instructing a group chat of Greek house representatives to mandate their members to vote.
Florida Blue Key insiders confirmed that Jared Weingard was passed over for a promised position as Florida Blue Key’s president.
UF Supreme Court
Chief Justice Julia Van De Bogart, who wrote the decision in favor of gerrymandering the fall election maps, resigned in December. Her resignation coincided with calls to censure her for abuse of power, malfeasance, and nonfeasance.
Financial Corruption
UF_Politics previously reported on financial corruption in student government involving Florida Blue Key, ACCENT Speakers, and Student Government Productions. We are continuing to investigate the details and will release information at a later time. In the meantime, we have been continuing to investigate corruption within Florida Blue Key and recently released an interview with Charles Grapski, who exposed Florida Blue Key’s role controlling student government in an infamous lawsuit.
