Votes were tallied before spring break, but a week later, the Student Government Association has not determined who will serve as next year’s president and vice president.
Chief Election Commissioner Micah Kenfield announced the official election results March 13 to candidates and supporters who gathered in the World Affairs Room, University Center.
Close presidential and vice presidential races leaves two teams of candidates in the running. Alexander Obregon and Laura Bobrick received 32.8 percent of the votes, and Kenneth Fomunung and Prince Wilson received 25.5 percent of votes.
Since all presidential/vice presidential candidate teams received less than 50 percent of the vote, under the SGA election codes Article 6, Section 5, Clause 5, there shall be a run-off election between the two candidates with the largest number of votes.’
SGA will hold the run-off election Thursday and Friday.
Article 6, Section 2, Clause 3 provides that in the event of a run-off election, ‘a coin toss between the candidates and their representative in the presence of the election commissioner will determine the ballot position.”
Candidates listed in the first position on the ballot are likely to be selected by the greater majority of voters, former state Rep. Kent Sharp once said. The coin flip aims to give candidates a fair shot at receiving this advantage, though SGA urges students to vote for the candidates whom they feel are qualified for the positions in which they are striving for.
If a tie is to occur in the run-off election, the winner is to be determined by the vote of the newly elected Senate under Article 6, Section 5, Clause 7 of the election codes.
Fomunung and Wilson said it was nerve-wracking to wait as the results were being announced.
‘Upon hearing my name I took a deep breath and muttered, ‘Amen!” Fomunung said.
‘I am ecstatic right now and struggling with my words, but I am super excited about this opportunity.’
Obregon and Bobrick, who could not be reached for comment, were praised by their opponents.
‘Alex and Laura are both competent and respectable candidates,’ Wilson said.
A total of 74 candidates vied for 32 positions, the greatest number of candidates to ever run in an SGA election.
The election was also the most active in SGA history with participation from 3,201 students voters.
The voter demographics showed’ 28.65 percent were Asian, 26.52 percent were white/other, 22.02 percent were black, 19.09 percent were Hispanic, 0.19 percent were Native American, 0.06 percent were Pacific Islander and 3.47 unknown.
Official election results can be found on the SGA Web site at http://www.uhsga.com//elections.php.
