Special Report: Gator/Vision Party Rigs Fall Election Maps In Their Favor, Gerrymandering UF Student Government
After losing two elections in a row last year, Gator Party is currently in disarray. Gator Party is part of a century-old political machine that controls UF’s student government. This political machine is called “The System” and is examined extensively in the Bradshaw Papers. The System relies on underhanded deals with Greek houses, grifting off the tuition dollars of regular students. For example, certain government agencies that control hundreds of thousands of dollars belong to particular fraternities (ACCENT Speakers Bureau belongs to AEPi, Student Government Productions belongs to Theta Chi).
Desperate to continue their grift, Gator Party has gone through the usual playbook of System parties: not attending Senate, filibustering leadership elections, and rebranding to Vision Party in hopes people will forget their scandalous history. However, they went beyond their usual playbook to rig election maps in hopes of destroying all political opposition forever.
Gerrymandering, or How To Rig A Student Government Election
The previous election map divided off-campus seats into four districts based on zip code. The district model has been used in various formulations since the 1970s. Last fall’s election maps were also drawn by Gator Party. The old maps looked like this:
Gator/Vision Party voted down decades of precedent and pushed through a court case, Re: Fall 2023 Election Map, to change the election maps to their favor. UF’s Student Supreme Court were all appointed by the Gator Party Student Body President. The Gator-controlled Supreme Court ruled, unsurprisingly, 4–1 in favor of new gerrymandered maps. The new maps look like this:
Under these new maps, off-campus student representation reaches the point of absurdity. Senators from sorority row will now represent students who live at Gainesville Place. Senators from fraternity row will now represent UF Online students. Minority voices will be silenced in favor of uniform Greek domination.
Gator Party’s justification for the new maps is that the data provided by UF is unreliable. However, this reasoning falls flat because the district model has been used for fifty years without problem, and Gator Party themselves drew the maps last year. It was only after they lost two elections in a row that they claimed to have a problem. The only reason to redraw the election maps is to steal the election.
What You Can Do
The problem with Gator/Vision Party’s gerrymandering attempt is that they didn’t crunch their numbers well. Last fall, Gator Party lost 27 seats at a turnout of 9.8k. The System party wins elections through voter apathy and the coercion of Greek life, threatening them to vote or they won’t be able to eat their chicken parm. Under an at-large model, they only coerced a surplus of ~1.5k votes. This means that if 1.5k more students vote against Gator/Vision Party this year, they will lose their own gerrymandered maps.
Because of their overconfidence in rigging the election, a Gator/Vision loss this fall would mean the end of their political machine. If the at-large district flips against Gator/Vision, they will lose, at minimum, 37 seats. This would mean an instant majority for the opposition party, which would overhaul the corrupt practices of Gator/Vision and enact fair student representation for the first time in a century.
Voting takes place on October 3rd and 4th. If you are an online student, Gator/Vision has continued to try to disenfranchise you through the Supreme Court by blocking online voting. However, you can still mail in your votes by requesting an absentee ballot by September 20th, 5:00 PM.
You can request an absentee ballot at the following link: https://orgs.studentinvolvement.ufl.edu/FormWizard/58/108
TL;DR — Gator/Vision Party rigged the election maps in their favor, but if ~1.5k more people vote against them this election cycle, they’ll get screwed by their own gerrymandered maps.
We will continue to do our watchdog reporting on student government corruption for the entirety of election season.
Appendix
Senators who voted against fair district election maps (Student Senate Bill 2023–1175):
- Alvarez, Santiago (Gator)
- Amster, Aaron (Gator)
- Antonik, Emma (Gator)
- Bader, Corey (Gator)
- Clark, Lilliana (Gator)
- Cox, Blake (Independent)
- Damera, Saketh (Independent, Vision Party President)
- Ghozali, Ethan (Gator)
- Giordano, Catherine (Gator)
- Hazlett, James (Gator)
- Howard, Gretchen (Gator)
- Imbrigiotta, Mia (Gator)
- Kelley, Caroline (Gator)
- Khuddus, Ayesha (Gator)
- Kinggard, Samantha (Gator)
- Lekebusch, Owen (Gator)
- Lieber, Amanda (Gator)
- Liu, Johnny (Gator)
- Locascio, Christine (Gator)
- Murtha, Patrick (Gator)
- Pecora, Emily (Gator)
- Penin, Isabel (Independent)
- Platovsky, Samuel (Gator)
- Ponce, Isabel (Independent)
- Rappoport, Freddi (Gator)
- Reich, Matthew (Independent)
- Roberts, Wilson (Gator)
- Robson, Tyler (Gator)
- Ruedas, Sidney (Gator)
- Russo, Charlotte (Gator)
- Seifer, Julia (Gator)
- Solomon, Mason (Gator)
- Thomas, Nathaniel (Independent)
- Vigna, Annabella (Gator)
- Vijayaraghavan, Monish (Gator)
- Wang, Laurie (Gator)
- White, Nadia (Gator)
Note: Many “independent” senators are former Gator senators now in Vision Party, the rebrand of Gator Party. Their affiliations are updated as of 9/12/23.
Supreme Court Justices who ruled in favor of gerrymandered maps:
- Julia Van de Bogart (Appointed by Gator Party Student Body President Lauren Lemasters)
- Brittney Deas (Appointed by Gator Party Student Body President Olivia Green)
- Mark Freeman (Appointed by Gator Party Student Body President Olivia Green)
- Dylan Brown (Appointed by Gator Party Student Body President Olivia Green)
Electoral Seat Division in Fall 2022
- Beaty Towers — 1 Seat
- Broward-Rawlings Area — 1 Seat
- Graduate and Family Housing — 1 Seat
- Graham Area — 1 Seat
- Hume Area — 1 Seat
- Infinity Hall — 1 Seat
- Jennings Area — 1 Seat
- Keys Residential Complex — 1 Seat
- Lakeside Residential Complex — 1 Seat’
- Murphree Area — 1 Seat
- Springs Residential Complex — 1 Seat
- Tolbert Area — 1 Seat
- Yulee Area — 1 Seat
- District A (ZIP codes 32601, 32609, 32614) — 11 Seats
- District B (ZIP codes 32603, 32605, 32606, 32653) — 7 Seats
- District C (ZIP code 32607) — 6 Seats
- District D (Zip code 32608) — 12 Seats
- District E (Zip code not listed) — 1 Seat
Gerrymandered Electoral Seat Division in Fall 2023
- Beaty Towers — 1 Seat
- Broward-Rawlings Area — 1 Seat
- Graduate and Family Housing — 1 Seat
- Graham Area — 1 Seat
- Honor Village — 1 Seat
- Hume Area — 1 Seat
- Infinity Hall — 1 Seat
- Jennings Area — 1 Seat
- Keys-Springs Residential Complex — 1 Seat
- Lakeside Residential Complex — 1 Seat’
- Murphree Area — 1 Seat
- Tolbert Area — 1 Seat
- Yulee Area — 1 Seat
- Off Campus — 37 Seats
