Quiroga-Lewis and Errico-Spence Beaulieu tickets are headed into a runoff for student body president and vice president. The candidates, along with other newly elected officials, were announced late Tuesday evening after 24 hours of voting.
“I feel great, Meredith and I together feel great,” said Jess Errico, a fourth-year studying mechanical and aerospace engineering, minutes after the announcement. “This has been a wild ride so far. I’m excited that students are excited of what we have to offer.”
Alberto Quiroga, a third-year studying aerospace engineering, echoed his competitor’s sentiment, alongside his running mate Zach Lewis, a third-year studying statistics.
“[We’re] very speechless,” Quiroga said. “We’re just very proud of our team, we’re proud of everyone that went out there and got people to vote and got people excited, and that’s what our campaign’s about. It’s about the students.”
The two tickets were also contested against presidential candidate Mia Connell, a third-year studying sociology, and running mate Gabby Dauntain, a second-year studying philosophy and political science, as well as presidential candidate Taylor Pulliam, a third-year studying political science, and running mate Cat Duble, a third-year studying business administration and communication.
Over 5,000 students voted in this year’s election, about 700* less than last year’s spring election cycle. 30.57 percent of the presidential and vice presidential votes went to Quiroga and Lewis, while 28.75 percent of the vote went to Errico and Spence-Beaulieu.
“We 100 percent endorse Jess and Meredith,” Pulliam said. “They’re the most qualified in this race, and they’ve run a clean campaign; cannot say that on the other side.”
Adam Schmidt, a third-year studying civil engineering, edged out fellow candidates James Withrow, a graduate student studying entomology, and Ryan Dunn, a second-year studying political science, by taking 44.19 percent of the Student Senate president votes, garnering over 2,000 votes in total.
“I’m very excited, I’m very grateful to all the people that got me here,” said Schmidt, who ran on the campaign slogan, ‘Let’s Get Schmidt Done.’ “It’s been very stressful and it’s also midterms … but my friends supported me so much and my team helped me out, so I’m incredibly thankful for them.”
Withrow, who is supporting Errico and Spence Beaulieu, came in to run with a campaign he was proud of and is looking to fill a graduate Senate seat.
“I’m ready to continue going back,” Withrow said. “There’s open grad seats, I already told Adam I’ll be applying for one of them. I’m just going to continue to push for the stuff that I want to push for, and I hope that he will work with us on that.”
All uncontested seats were filled, with about a quarter of abstaining votes per position. Molly Mueller, a third-year studying political science and international studies, remains student body treasurer, while Jodi Svetaketu, a second-year studying English and Spanish, is set take over Errico’s position as student body chief justice.
Andrew Hilts, a third-year studying graphic design, was elected as Union Activities Board president. A referendum was also passed to change the name of the Union Activities Board to ‘University Activities Board.’
Chad Butts, a fourth-year studying technology, engineering and design, was elected as Inter-Residence Council president.
Board of Elections chair Anna Kate Whitfield, a fourth-year studying political science, discussed the next steps the board will be taking after the runoff election, including planning for the next semester.
“We’re going to work on a lot on just seeing what kind of went wrong or what was rocky during the election season,” Whitfield said. “And editing the handbook to try and smooth that process out. For us, this semester it was a lot of finance stuff. People just really struggled, I think, with their finance reports. So we’re going to try and smooth that process out.”
Pulliam and Duble are also looking to stay engaged with Student Government in an effort to convey one of the highlights of their platform’s message.
“[We’re] both still looking to get involved in Student Government,” Duble said. “Although we couldn’t make that impact on the highest level, we both have open seats in both of our colleges that we want to get involved in, so we’re definitely still going to get involved, definitely still want to get our voice heard. This isn’t going to stop us from that goal.”
In anticipation of the runoff, Quiroga and Lewis are prepared to hit the ground running.
“It’s right to work,” Quiroga said. “Gather people up right now and get to work. We want to make sure we win this.”
Errico, who commented on the high intensity of the race, was impressed by her candidates’ performances, but is looking forward to tackling the next few days.
“I think the runoff is a whole different atmosphere,” Errico said. “It’s challenging to get people to vote the first time, so getting people to vote again is going to be tough, but I think being consistent with our messaging and just knowing we do have the support of a significant portion of the student body behind us means a lot.”
Runoff voting will begin Thursday, March 1 at 8 a.m. and conclude at 8 p.m. that day. The election will be revealed at 9 p.m. in Talley-Pavilions.
Student Media will be hosting an additional presidential debate Wednesday at 9 p.m. in Talley Student Union’s student governance chambers, room 4140.
For a complete list of election results, the Board of Elections has a document posted on their website.
*Editor’s note: This article was updated on Feb. 28 to reflect the correct number of voters in this year’s spring election cycle.
First-year engineering student Sophie Holmes hugs third-year engineering student Adam Schmidt to celebrate his election to the position of student senate president on Tuesday. The student government election reveal took place in Talley Student Union and resulted in a runoff between the Quiroga/Lewis and Errico/Spence Beaulieu tickets to be held on Thursday.
