The student body elected several new freshmen representatives along with several familiar faces, including electing a current council member to a second seat in the fall student government election.

Six percent of the student body voted in the election, down from the record turnout of around 35 percent last spring mostly related to a controversial proposal to renovate the Natatorium which voters struck down. 

The Associated Students of Madison Student Council Chair Brandon Williams said the turnout was pretty normal for a fall election. He added it’s still higher than a lot of the Big Ten schools whose election turnouts are around two percent or three percent.

The four freshmen representatives elected to council were Andrew Bulovsky, Cody Ostenson, Tito Diaz and Sarah Neibart.

Neibart said they were all really excited to find out the results and see all of their hard work pay off.

She added she wants to be a positive voice on campus and try to help freshmen out in their first few months at school because she knows it is a really stressful time.

Ostenson said he is looking forward to helping with the housing legislation that is currently being debated in City Council and is interested in joining the Student Service Finance Committee.

Diaz said he wants to represent the voices of students who are currently underrepresented in ASM.

Williams said he is excited to start working with the newly elected representatives.

“I just met the candidates for the first time tonight, but I am looking forward to working with them,” Williams said. “I saw a lot of the winners’ names around campus so I know they were campaigning hard and want to be involved.”

Bulovsky said he felt they would get caught up to speed with what is going on with Student Council quickly and added they have an informational meeting coming up soon.

The two open SSFC seats will be filled by write-in candidates Rae Lymer, Campus Women’s Center program coordinator and UW Junior Riaan Roux. ASM Chief of Staff Tom Templeton came in third in the voting.

Roux said he is a transfer student from UW-Waukesha, where he served in the student government.

“I was a little surprised and relieved and very grateful … I have always wanted to help students,” Riann said.

There was some controversy surrounding the SSFC election because no candidates’ names were on the ballot. The seats became open past the deadline for candidates to apply, so they had to be write-in positions on the ballot.

SSFC Chair Matt Manes said he has contacted both winners and is looking forward to new people and feels they are both up to the challenge.

However, Manes said he would have liked to see a wider pool of candidates.

“The problem with a write-in ballot is people who have a vested interest in the committee are the ones who are most likely to be elected,” Manes said.

The biggest surprise of the election was Student Council Secretary TJ Madsen being elected again to be the College of Engineering representative with three votes.

Madsen is already a member of Student Council and cannot fill two seats. There was a four-way tie for second place.

Williams said they will contact all of the runner ups and see if they still want to serve on council. He added if more than one says they are interested they will randomly draw a winner.