Geneseo mayoral election to be held Mar. 15, students encouraged to vote
The Village of Geneseo mayoral election will be held on Mar. 15. Both candidates, as well as the members of the Geneseo Votes Coalition (GVC), are encouraging Geneseo students to participate in the election and make their voices heard in the village.
The Geneseo Votes Coalition is a group of campus organizations that work to increase civil engagement and voting numbers in the student population, according to an Andrew Goodman Foundation (AGF) Ambassador and sophomore international relations major Tim Rainis. The coalition includes the Andrew Goodman Foundation, the College Democrats and College Republicans and several other organizations on campus.
According to Rainis, the coalition is interested in increasing voter turnout regardless of which candidate students are voting for.
“Our goals include increasing student voting and just general civic engagement; we want people to vote no matter who they vote for,” he said.
He said that one of the coalition’s current goals is bridging the gap between Geneseo students and the local issues decided by village elections.
“One of our goals is to try to close that gap and educate people on the importance of both local elections and local issues, and to get them registered to vote and engaged in these elections,” Rainis said. “These issues do affect Geneseo students because the issues that are being discussed at the village level include things that involve off campus housing and code, stuff like that. The local economy, main street businesses, employment opportunities, things that affect one's daily life like parking in the village. A lot of stuff in that regard that you really don't think about very often, especially in a nationally obsessed political atmosphere, but that are very consequential to our everyday lives.”
Rainis stressed the importance of village government in students’ everyday lives.
“The state of the village of Geneseo is going to affect the students’ experience more than the federal administration is. Not to say that it's not important who the president is, but if you're going to try to impact your everyday life here on campus, it's got to be local,” he said.
In an effort to bridge the gap between Geneseo students and local politics, both Democratic candidate Eddie Lee and Republican candidate Christopher Ivers explained their platforms and the issues that they think are important in the upcoming election.
Lee, a Geneseo alum and current member of the Geneseo Village Board of Trustees, stressed the importance of the student vote in local elections.
“You should vote because students are here for four years…there's a perception that because they’re here for four years that's not long enough, and that they're just passing by. But in reality, there are other renters in Geneseo that stay here less than students. Voting is one way to express that. A lot of people don't know that of the 8,000 population in the village of Geneseo, 4,500 of those, more than 50%, are students,” Lee said.
In order to appeal to Geneseo students, Lee has been an active member of the community and has attended several events on campus.
Lee said, “I do a lot of things in the community. My wife and I volunteer with local nonprofit groups. I volunteer a lot on campus, and I work with students. I attend a lot of events; I'm very involved with the campus community here. I will be here physically present. I really want to be Geneseo’s strongest advocate.”
His broader plan, if elected mayor, is “for lack of a better term, a Geneseo sustainability plan,” he said.
Lee said, “I have this idea about mobilizing local groups and setting some goals for 2032. I have a vision of a sustainable village, and that includes reviewing all our policies and practices to make sure that they meet sustainability principles. I want to deal with issues like a cleaner electricity supply, and I want to think about decarbonizing our buildings. I want to think about land use strategies and putting more green space in the community. I want to do more sustainability education for all people, and I want to look at food security issues and economic justice issues. I want to think about organic waste collection and recycling and composting on Main Street, pre- and post-consumer recycling. I've talked to some businesses who really want to do it, they just need some support and more leadership.”
Lee said that one of his goals for village government is increased transparency.
“I think village government, and all government, is sort of not transparent, and that's why people are really cynical about politics and government. So, one of my goals is to become more transparent, and part of that is listening and making our information more accessible, making our website more friendly. One of the things I really want to do—this is sort of a crazy, hokey idea—but I want to be able to have people have coffee with the mayor at Crickets. I want to do that maybe a couple of Saturdays a month, and I want people to be able to just openly talk about their issues. I just want I want people to feel good about their government,” he said.
Ivers, another Geneseo alum and current Deputy Mayor of Geneseo, is running on the Republican ticket and is happy that Geneseo residents have a choice this election.
“Both [Lee and I] went to the Democratic caucus to try to get a nomination. I sadly lost by one, and it was a big turnout. There were I think, 80 to 82 people there. In the days after [the caucus] I had a lot of people reaching out offering support and asking that potentially I consider running further. This is the first time in a long time, I think, that Geneseo has had a more or less contested mayoral bid. And that's good. It’s good to have choice, it's good to have people that are engaged in their community,” Ivers said.
Ivers said that he supports civic engagement wherever you live and wants to continue to express that through community engagement.
“I want to demonstrate to my family and my kids that if you live someplace, you can't complain about it unless you're actively involved,” Ivers said. “I think that if you're living here, and this is your full-time home, you should be engaged and paying attention to what's going on. If you're here, you want to weigh in on what policies are going to drive the community, right?”
According to campaign documents provided by Ivers, he has a history of community service and engagement. He has been a village trustee since 2018 and is a former President of the Association for the Preservation of Geneseo. Since his appointment as a village trustee and his subsequent appointment as Deputy Mayor, he has accelerated improvements to village infrastructure, and successfully lowered costs of village utilities across all residents.
Ivers said that he is looking to work with the college to close the gap between the village and the college and said that he is interested in taking more student perspectives into account in local government.
“This is problematic for me, but I don't have a lot of student interaction. There is a student on the board [of trustees], and she is amazing. One thing I think I would like to do if I am elected mayor is to have a little bit more student conversation. I'm a relatively old white guy, so listening to perspectives from campus has been super helpful. The previous student that was on the board for a while would regularly say things that shifted my perspective. She would say something and I'm like, ‘yes, I do want to move in that direction.’ I would encourage that from all students,” he said.
Since the election will be held Mar. 15, a date which falls on Geneseo’s spring break, the Geneseo Votes Coalition is encouraging students to apply for mail-in ballots to vote in the election.
In an email statement, the AGF and the GVC offer guidance to students on where and how they can register to vote.
“Students may register to vote and apply for an absentee ballot for the Mar. 15 Village Election in the GOLD Room (College Union Room 114) by Mar. 4. Students may get their completed ballots mailed free of charge through the SA Ticket Office by Mar. 11.”
The statement directed all student questions to AGF Ambassador Tim Rainis, who can be reached by email at tjr13@geneseo.edu.
