The end of the Cerritos College electoral votes saw Daniel Flores gain the trustee position, winning by a landslide; with Aldemar Sanchez and Miles Aiello concluding the presidential race in run-off elections Wednesday, April 23 and Thursday, April 24.
The voting took place across campus Thursday, April 18. Flores, member of the Social Equality Club, earned 488 votes, with 199, 189, and 38 votes following Joseph Nino, Lance Makinano and Vanessa Vega.
“Regardless of who won, I was very proud of the trustee election turnout,” Nino said. “It had been a tough few weeks preparing for it all and I was glad to see the outreach from candidates and campaigners. When I heard that Daniel had the most votes, it was of no surprise. His campaign team worked hard for every vote.”
The presidential election will conclude with a run-off, as Aiello didn’t hold more than 50 percent of the votes.
At the end of it, the votes for the presidential votes were 363 for Miles Aiello and Charles Caguioa, 301 for Aldemar Sanchez and Dennis Garcia and 75 votes for Hector Arellano and Charles Zuniga.
Aiello said, “Heading into the elections, my team and I felt as if we had a really good amount of support. Facing off with Aldemar next week, I feel like its going to be a war; a war that will crown the team that doesn’t try harder, but the team that executes and communicates consistently and more effectively.”
With the trustee elections, Flores was elated at the outcome and campus investment in the entire process.
He said, “The amount of student participation in this election is incredible, to have their support is another feeling altogether. As a club this is what we are aiming for, we want more students involved in the political decision making process.”
Arellano added, “I am very happy that Daniel became our trustee because he will make a difference for the students.”
Coming off the heels of the entire Makinano, “vote of no confidence” situation that occurred Wednesday, April 16, when two senators from the Social Equality Club, the very club Flores is a part of, tried to vote Makinano from his trustee position, there is a talk of concern that that situation may have skewed results.
Flores denies this.
“The vote of no confidence did not sway the results in anyway because students at large hardly know or hear about what is happening in ASCC,” he said. “We engaged with every type of student on campus and shared our platform that was based on results. That is the reason why the students came out and voted, they want to see this college go back to an affordable two-year institution with services that will help them transfer on to the next level.”
He now looks at his future goals.
“Along with other students, we plan to build the bridge between the Board of Trustees and the student voice; it has been fragmented for a while now. We will collectively focus on increasing the courses being offered, increasing the amount textbooks the library has on reserves and making sure no fees are levied upon the student body population.”
Arellano is pleased with the Flores as the new trustee, but fears for the future of Cerritos College, as he feels Aiello and Sanchez are not up to snuff for the job. He wishes that students had given him more of a chance.
“Now in the other hand I’m concerned that Aldemar and Miles are facing off because both of them are a bad choice as student leaders. Because both of them will continue with the same bias-popularity based leadership. I wish that my fellow students would have given me the opportunity of leading them because I would have changed things for the better. I don’t feel defeated because I believe that success doesn’t come without defeat.”
With the presidential elections now at a run-off, both Aiello and Sanchez are really pushing their individual platforms and encouraging student engagement.
Sanchez said, “We both fought really hard to try to win this election that we pretty much cut the votes in half. My feeling when seeing the results and seeing a runoff election made me feel determined to bring it stronger and better for next week.”
He added, “Dennis and myself feel very confident this coming week not only in ourselves, but in our campaign group and in our supporters.”
ASCC President Juan Ramirez had never witnessed a run-off election in the three years that he has attended the school.
“Like I told Aldemar and Miles, regardless of the results, shake hands with your opponents and congratulate them for an amazing campaign whether you win or lose. After all, we do what we do because we believe in helping the students.”
