Signs Point to Higher Voter Turnout: UC San Diego AS Election Results 2023

UC San Diego’s Associated Students (ASUCSD) Election Committee announced the winners of the 2023 election on Friday, April 14 after 6:30 p.m. at Price Center Plaza. The results included outcomes for both the college councils and the campus-wide elections.

Voter turnout for the undergraduate student population at UCSD for this election was 12.51% of the student population, which is an increase from last year’s 10.49% voter turnout. Out of the 31,251 undergraduate students enrolled at UCSD, 3,908 voted. Additionally, Seventh College had the highest voter turnout for the third year in a row, with 17.23% of Seventh College’s student body voting in this election.

The winner of the Associated Student’s presidential election is George Chi loi Lo. The Triton had the opportunity to speak with him after the announcement.

“Hello Tritons, I am very happy and excited to be elected as your new next year’s 2023-2024 Associated Students Student Body President. As president, I will start looking at the voter turnout; I will try to unite this school,” Lo stated.

The president-elect is an independent candidate who is the current Director of Initiates, Media, and Outreach at AS Office of the President. Additionally, he is the Director of Academic Affairs and HDH (Housing Dining and Hospitality) representative for Warren’s College Council.

As part of his campaign, Lo has advocated for a 4-year housing guarantee, the APIMEDA resource center, and more recreation facilities. He has also committed to keeping students informed about AS decisions and improving the benefits and work environments for on-campus student workers.

“I believe as president, I want to unite this school and push for agendas that will serve the greater good … we will help every single group of people and make sure voices are heard, and bring UCSD a brighter future,” Lo said.

The Uplift slate campaigned on a policy that included advocating  for student organizations to receive more funding. Additionally, they hope to use their platform to ensure access to basic needs on UCSD’s campus. This includes fostering communities and providing aid to existing service centers on campus. The slate also promotes transparency and communication between students and their representative government. Nine members of the Uplift slate were elected into office.

Many candidates also ran as independents and were thus not affiliated with a slate.

Below is a list of the elected candidates.

AS President

President – George Chi Ioi Lo (Independent)

AS Vice Presidents 

Executive Vice President – Leslie Vallejo-Avila (Uplift)

Vice President External Affairs – Eduardo Tapia Jr-Urbieta (Independent)

Vice President Academic Affairs – Joshua Hwang (Uplift)

AS Campus-wide Senators

Campus-Wide Senator(s) – Nelly A Zapata-Castillo (Independent), Christina Marrie Barrion Green (Uplift), Michelle Griffith (Independent), Liane Barkhordar (Independent), and Alex Lujan (Uplift)
Off-campus Senator(s) – Marysol Valdez (Uplift) and Elizabeth G Lopez (Uplift)

Transfer Senator – Mercedes Limón (Uplift)

Out-of-State Senator – Asha Sita Krishna (Uplift)

International Senator – Yifan Chen (Uplift)

Meg Barrett is a News writer for The Triton.