tl20030424-000 "emit As. r: is te !tter to ,out less Mr. el r y ian � few not ian e-lad for ver Ian all ow ael ge: )th to he ch ho ut as er ye at ie Dr to le t-is a ri ThE Baltimore's #1 College Paper - Published Twice-Weekly - www.thetowerlight.com TOLUE/ Thursday, 4/24/03 Varied reaction to registration Group to aid internat'l women 5 Simplicity is hey in 'Our Town' 13 Sculpture race draws TU artists 14 Departments Opinion 2 News 5 Nation 6 Campus Briefs 8 Arts 13 Art Around You 15 Entertainment Briefs 16 Sports 20 Bankshots 19 In This Corner 20 Classifieds 17 Renaissance sweeps election Saul Streogenks/The Towerhght Bobbie O'Connell holds up her cell phone so that her mother can hear Election Commission chair Michael Margolis announce her victory in the SGA presidential race Wednesday afternoon in the Union. The Renaissance Party won all executive board positions in addition to all 18 senatorial positions. Voter turnout drops by 513 from 2002 election; Second consecutive Renaissance Party victory Sarah Breitenbach The Towerlight After two days of student voting, polls for the 2003-2004 SGA admin-istration closed Wednesday after-noon, naming the Renaissance Party the victor for the second year in a row. The ticket as a whole, led by pres-ident- elect junior finance major Bobbie O'Connell, received more than three times the number of votes as their opponents, the newly formed Enlightenment Party. Renaissance swept the elections, winning every officer position and all 18 senator positions. This year the SGA Election Commission saw a drop in the num-ber of students voting, with only 1,297 ballots being cast, 513 less than last year. This year, 10,946 stu-dents were eligible to vote. Michael Margolis, chair of the Election Commission, said the num-ber of students voting was reflective of the number of candidates. ""The number of votes are down because two years ago we had the same number of people running; however they went around all night long and knocked on peoples' doors the hours that they were allowed to, and during the night we picked up 500 votes, 500 votes, and 40 this year,"" Margolis said. ""Last year, we had about 15 more people running, and that compen-sates for the differences in votes this year. The more people you have run-ning, the more votes you're going to get."" Margolis also said that the corn-puterized voting system was down for about an hour and 15 minutes on Tuesday due to a malfunction, but added that it probably did not impact the number of votes received. The low turn out can also be attributed to voter apathy, Margolis said. ""We're off because people are lazy, and no matter how much free stuff you give them, if they don't know enough about the candidate ... they don't want to vote,"" he said. The Election Commission offered free Italian ices, water bottles, pens, pencils and pencil sharpeners to students who voted at on-campus polling locations. Senior family studies major Andrea Freeman helped to staff the polling locations that were located See RENAISSANCE, page 9 Saul Stoogenke The Towerlight Enlightenment candidate Todd Zimmelman awaits the returns. Today High 65 Low 42 Friday High 63 Low 46 Saturday High 49 Low 48 Sunday High 64 Low 47 Monday High 68 Low 46 "