Student Election Begins Today — With A Mostly Empty Ballot
Today and tomorrow, only two candidates will be running for separate positions in the Student Government Association (SGA) election. Sophia Larimore will be running for the presidency and Leon Belmont will be running for re-election as Student Trustee.
This leaves the seats of vice president, secretary, and treasurer without any candidates. Either write-in candidates will win these seats, or they will be left empty.
This lack of competition is a key motivator for presidential candidate Larimore, who feels she is a strong choice for the role.
Larimore is a second-year student who founded the “ICC Community Discord”, the most popular active ICC Discord server. She is also the editor of the Harbinger Student Media and attends the monthly trustee meetings.
“I have some experience with the actual board of trustees at ICC because I attend the meetings for Harbinger. I take notes typically and see a lot about how things are run at ICC”, says Larimore.
“If no one is competing and no one wants to run, what’s gonna happen? If no one wants to be the president, the voice of ICC students, I might as well be the voice,” she says.
Larimore was additionally motivated to run by encouragement from Belmont, who is running for re-election as Student Trustee.
Belmont is a pre-med student aiming to become a medical doctor and is also taking classes to become a paramedic.
In the last year, Belmont has been an active presence on campus and was involved in a recent tuition increase which he says was to preserve student services. More information can be found in this article.
“I’m excited,” Belmont says. “I’ve learned so much over the course of the last year and advocated for a lot of change on behalf of the students, and I’m looking forward to continuing that.”
“That being said, I’m hopeful that my re-running doesn’t keep anyone from running for the position if they have interest. I want everyone to have an equal opportunity to earn this role,” he says.
The election will take place on Wednesday and Thursday from 8 a.m.- 4 p.m. Write-in votes are an option. There will be a stand in the East Peoria Atrium to cast physical ballots or use a computer, and voting is also available at icc.edu/studentelections. An ICC username and password are required to vote.