LIVE GOSS: The 2019 USU Board Elections
By Pulp Goss
It’s voting day, and throngs of hacks with big ambitions and bold t-shirts are asking for your vote this election. At the close of the last voting booth, Honi Soit’s exit polls had Benny Shen in the lead with 17.8% of the vote, followed closely by Nick Forbutt at 15.3%, Eve Wang with 15.1%, and Oscar Bai at 14.8%. Honi will be live with the numbers throughout the day, so be sure to keep an eye on their live polls.
6:30 PM
And that’s a wrap! Voting closed to the dulcet tones of Grassroots singing “solidarity forever” and the cheers of campaigners. Keep an eye on our Instagram and Facebook for further coverage.
4:29 PM
Eastern Avenue is popping OFF right now, with the closure of booths at Manning and JFR.
3:25 PM
Grassroots have been playing fast and loose with the rules, with some of their online campaigning missing authorisation:
2:42 PM
Looks like things are about to heat up between the two campus Labor factions: Tom campaigners (Unity) have started contesting votes for Nick (NLS)
12:40 PM
The rumoured Labor MP was in fact failed Labor candidate for Balmain, Ellie Howse.
12:35 PM
UPDATE: When asked by Pulp for comment, Jacky He responded: “If I haven’t done something, I haven’t done it and I don’t think it is right to report rumours before they are even confirmed . And additionally it is legally problematic to not state the source where it comes from” when asked by Pulp why he thought it was appropriate for the President of the SRC to intervene in such a manner, He replied “because there is both a defamation issue and a legal issue and I am legally liable.”
11:42 AM
SRC God-King Jacky He has censored Honi Soit for reporting on his decidedly aggressive antics toward campaigners for Ruolin Ma. This is a deeply troubling indicator of the future that may await Honi Soit editors reporting on student elections, should the failed SRC council regulations that would enable the Electoral Officer to censor and suspend Honi Soit editors pass. This is an unprecented move, and Honi have been forced to redact parts of their live blog. Imagine if Jacky put as much energy into his President’s report as he did trying to censor unflattering reporting in student media.
11:40 AM
We’re hearing unconfirmed gossip that a NSW Labor MP (who is also a student at Usyd) is campaigning for Nick Forbutt at ABS.
11:30 AM
Nick Forbutt has overtaken Benny and is now in the lead with 15.5%. Benny Shen and Eve Wang are both on 15.2%, and Cady has apparently unlocked the college vote, overtaking Ellie Stephenson (7.7%) on a very slight lead at 7.8%. Looks like this will be a close one folks.
10:45 AM
Goodness me, where is Tina Lee? Tina remains the only person campaigning for Tina.
10:30 AM
Campaigners for Cady, Benny and Ruolin are dominating ABS
10:00 AM
We’ve found one Tina campaigner, and that campaigner is…Tina. Manning is open but there are no campaigners for any candidate. Get in while you can.
9:55 AM
No sign of Tina Lee or her campaigners. They’re making up for the complete lack of campaigners with a number of fun chalk drawings, which is cute:
9:50 AM
Moderate Liberal, Conservative Club President and Esteemed Regular Contributor to The Sydney Tory Chanum Torres is doing some plain clothes campaigning for Cady, with no Cady Can shirt in sight. You have to admire is comittment to the Young Liberal aesthetic, if nothing else.
9:44 AM
Campaigners for Zizheng Bai are dominating Eastern Avenue, with a smattering of Cady and Benny campaigners in the middle, and Tom campaigners filling out much of the area near Carslaw and City road. Campaigners for Ellie Stephenson and Nick Forbutt are thin on the ground at Eastern Avenue, but have a fair few each at Redfern Run.
9:20 AM
Tom Manousaridis has gotten himself a glowing celebrity endorsement from USU past president and Bachelor in Paradise star Alisha Aitken-Radburn:
But is it a better celebrity endorsement than Superwog?
9:15 AM
The SRC President (Jacky He, Panda) and Sexual Harassment Officer (Jazz Breen, Grassroots) have been practicing an unusual campaigning technique, posting from the SRC WeChat and into SRC collective facebook groups respectively. He using official channels of SRC communication to campaign for candidates is objectively more fried, though Breen is certainly skating the thin ices of controversy by posting in collective facebook groups, which usually tend to be campaign free spaces.