Graphic by Alesandra Bell | Mercury Staff.
Last week’s Student Government election resulted in a runoff
between the top two presidential candidates, guaranteeing that a president and
vice president from different tickets would serve the student body in the most
contested election in SG history.
Political science junior Ayoub Mohammed of the Labor ticket
and neuroscience senior Danni Yang of the Ignite ticket are set to go
head-to-head in the runoff election, scheduled for Wednesday.
Public affairs junior Hope Cory of the Tier One ticket won
the vice presidency with 37.8% of the vote. Her running mate, Trevor
Schmaeling, finished third in the presidential race.
Student Government bylaws dictate that in a three-candidate
presidential race, the candidate with the most votes must command at least 40%
of the total votes to win and must have a margin of victory greater than 1%.
Neither Yang nor Mohammed won 40% of the vote. Yang garnered six more votes
than Mohammed, well within the margin.
“It’s an honor just to be in this runoff. That clearly shows
that we do still have supporters and that there are students passionate about
our ticket and campaign,” Yang said. “Mostly, my thoughts were just next steps.
What can I do to incentivize more students to vote and make sure that hopefully
all student voices are represented?”
Mohammed said he was motivated by the fact that eight
senators on his ticket had been elected.
“I’m just really excited,” Mohammed said. “We’re just going
to keep doing what we’re doing, spreading our message and platform, and
hopefully we’ll win (on) Wednesday.”
A total of 3,424 votes were cast in this year’s election,
representing a 55% increase from last year. Nearly 12% of the student body
voted in this year’s election, a 3.5% increase from 2018.
Economics senior Alexander Holcomb, the current chair of
SG’s Election Board, partly attributed the increase in turnout to a larger
election budget.
“We spent a considerable amount on getting the word out
(and) putting marketing materials out there,” he said. “Most of it was going to
social media, trying to hit people who typically wouldn’t have been involved in
Student Government.”
Holcomb said the rise in voter turnout was a positive step
for SG.
“It’s pretty encouraging,” he said. “Whenever you think of
the amount of exposure that SG has to the student body, I think that the more
that it has, the more effective it can be.”
Mohammed said while the uptick in turnout was encouraging,
there is still more work to be done.
“I still think (12%) is a very small number, and it could be
way higher,” he said.
In runoff elections, candidates can only spend up to $100,
which is 20% of what they can spend in standard elections. Both Yang and
Mohammed said they were working to ensure students were aware they would have
to vote again in the runoff.
Cory said she was looking forward to working with either of
the runoff candidates, both of whom ran on different tickets.
“It was also unexpected that Trevor didn’t get it. We knew
that was a possibility going in,” Cory said. “Everything that I stuck by on my
ticket — the platform, the initiatives — will still be carried over.”
Incumbent SG president Eric Chen was elected as a senior
senator, winning 12.2% of the vote. Incumbent vice president Carla Ramazan ran
for the Senate seat to represent EPPS, beating her opponent, Thomas Hobohm of
the Labor ticket, by one vote.
Students will receive an email on Wednesday with instructions
on how to cast their votes for the runoff. Voting will be held from 9 a.m. to 4
p.m., and the results will be announced no later than 6 p.m.