The ASUC Elections Council met Feb. 28 for a brief meeting to conduct a countback tabulation in order to fill former ASUC senator Milton Zerman’s seat.

Zerman resigned Feb. 19 at an ASUC Senate meeting in protest of the failure of his contentious bill, which would have condemned Bears for Palestine’s cubicle display in Eshleman Hall.

A countback is a process that selects a replacement for a senator, according to ASUC Elections Council Chair James Weichert. Countbacks reallocate the votes of resigning senators to the next ranked candidate on the ballot from the original election in April 2019.

“Countback ensures that all votes cast in the 2019 election are being used to determine the current composition of the ASUC Senate,” Weichert said during the meeting. “All votes are counted.”

The tabulator included all current senators and willing and eligible candidates, excluding now resigned senators Jenny Jungmin Kim and Milton Zerman.

After the tabulator ran, campus junior Emily Fregoso, who ran with the CalSERVE party, was officially announced the newest ASUC senator.

“This came hella unexpected, but I’m looking forward to being given the opportunity to do some community work for the remaining few months in while office,” Fregoso said in an email.

During their time in office, which ends in May along with the rest of this year’s senators’ terms, Fregoso said they hope to primarily focus their efforts on community work.

They plan to host community outreach events specifically geared toward sexual violence and survivor healing support. They also plan to host events focused on sexual health education for communities identifying as queer and transgender, Black, Native American and people of color, as well as a collaborative event for queer and transgender Black and Latinx students on campus.

“Nothing is cemented yet, I’m still brainstorming, collaborating, and planning things out but I’m excited for what’s to come!” Fregoso said in the email.