[media-credit name=’BRYAN FAUST/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Polling stations closed for the University of Wisconsin Associated Students of Madison elections Thursday, but members of ASM have differing opinions on the success of the Fall 2006 election.

"I think we were more organized and more prepared," said Student Election Commission Chair Leah Moe said. "We planned for the worst and ended up a lot better off than we thought we would."

Moe said ASM was impressed with voter turnout this semester, adding she thinks more students voted this week than in last spring's elections.

However, ASM Chair Dylan Rath said he had a different impression at the end of the day Thursday. Rath said voter turnout was what ASM expected, but lower than what ASM would have liked.

Rath blamed the low voter turnout on the paper ballot system and the lack of campaign efforts. The Living Wage and Student Union Initiative referendums, as well as the Student Council candidates, did not promote themselves as much as in previous elections.

"I would have liked to see just more materials about their platforms and maybe just a little more competition between the candidates," Rath said.

UW freshman and ASM member Kurt Gosselin said people tend to be apathetic to the political scene in general, and said he does not expect any different of UW politics. The voter turnout will be decent, Gosselin predicted, but no different than previous semesters.

UW senior Molly Berman said she did not vote in the ASM elections this year because she has not kept track of the Student Council candidates or the referendums on the ballot.

"I haven't taken the time to have a comprehensive understanding of what they mean," Berman said.

UW Junior Katie Bissen said she does not know anybody with fervent opinions about the ASM elections and thinks the paper ballot system significantly lowered the voter turnout this year.

Although she was not as informed during this round of elections as last semester, Bissen said she was drawn to the polls because of the Living Wage referendum and Student Union Initiative.

"It's my right — or maybe more of a responsibility — as a Madison student to pay attention to what's going on and use my votes to help," Bissen said.

Bissen voted "No" for the Student Union Initiative, she said, because members of the Student Union Initiative should make more efforts to raise money rather than raising student-segregated fees.

"It will hurt the poor students, and financial aid doesn't cover seg fees," Bissen said. But she had different sentiments about the Living Wage referendum, saying, "I don't know as much about it, but in general I support living wages."

ASM members began tabulating the votes Thursday night, and are required to report the results to the UW Student Judiciary by Tuesday.

Moe said if the judiciary does not find any discrepancies with the ballots, they will give "preliminary certification" to the votes.

Several days are allocated for appeals in case inconsistencies do arise. Once the "appeal window" is closed, the votes are certified and the results are official.