The polls are closed, the votes are in, and at the moment some have reason to celebrate, unofficially.
Due to technical problems, voting in the Associated Students’ Government election concluded at 4 p.m. March 20. The unofficial results are in and as of now, candidates David Fresquez and Allan Chacon have won the executive ticket, president and vice president for finance and administration.
The official results will be posted on the university Web site as soon as the votes for the write-in candidates have been counted and Chief Justice Sarah Duncan signs the results.
“We are definitely happy and looking forward to stepping into our new roles of president and vice-president,” Fresquez said.
Fresquez and Chacon garnered 334 votes, while candidates Amanda Cristelli and Nathan Pesch received 247 votes.
“With the actions taken, I was pleased that such a small gap existed between us,” Cristelli said.
The number of students that voted in this year’s election is 687, the highest turn out in recent history.
“We would have tripled our number if we had hit 690,” Commissioner Rebecca Packard said.
A power outage in Tennessee caused the election site to go off line for most of Wednesday, and although a mass e-mail was sent to students, voting numbers dropped down the last day. According to candidate Steven Titus, between 6:45 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. of March 20 only 87 votes were cast.
“This year’s election was definitely one for the books,” Titus said.
The seat of vice president for legislative affairs was a close race; candidate Leighann Hardwick beat Titus by 23 votes. Each candidate garnered 300 votes, which Hardwick said is exciting because it shows that the student body is engaging in ASG.
“It is an awesome challenge and I’m looking forward to it, I can’t stop smiling,” Hardwick said.
Grievances are currently pending; Election Commission Chair Samantha Milyard was unavailable for comment at press time.