Student Senate President Sarah Schuh has been busy counting votes for the Senate election since Monday and said the results are, so far, encouraging.

“It’s the highest (turnout) we’ve seen in years,” she said.

As of early Wednesday afternoon, a total of about 1,600 votes had been collected, said Colleen Bader, Senate program assistant. She said she hoped 2,000 votes eventually would be gathered.

The election in 2000 featured the Davies referendum, which funded an $8.5 million expansion. More than 1,750 students voted that year, according to Senate records, by far the largest student turnout in the past three years.

Voting turnout since has dropped significantly. Elections in 2002 drew a total of 929 votes, or about 9.5 percent of the UW-Eau Claire student body.

Schuh said she thinks the student body was “called to action” for the current election by a number of issues.

Some issues blooming interest in this year’s elections include the new student center and the difference between the presidential candidates, she said.

The last few days of campaigning for the final push for presidential office have brought a flurry of grievances.

Grievances are motions filed by a campaigning party claiming another party has violated Senate bylaws.

Both of the campaigns have been involved in the filing and receiving of grievances.

Some examples of the grievances include the removal of presidential posters from dorms and complaints against parties using material not approved by the correct officials.

Senate presidential candidate Saskia Harak, a junior, said although the grievances have been filed in a hurry, she isn’t worried.

Some of the rules likely are not being followed, she said, but the real worry should lay in the future elections and how they can be modified so the issues will not arise again.

The other Senate presidential candidate Adrian Klenz, a senior, acknowledged the array of grievances, but said his campaign only filed when blatant violations were made according to the bylaws.