It was four and a half hours after the student body elections officially ended when Jim Ceresnak, student body president-elect, heard the results declaring him the winner of the student body president race. Ceresnak, a junior in political science, said he was appreciative of the privilege to serve.

“I poured my heart and soul into this campaign,” he said through the tears. “It is an honor to have the opportunity to serve the student body.”

Jay Dawkins, the current student body president and senior class president-elect, said Ceresnak’s election was an exciting moment.

“Now it’s time to get to work,” Dawkins, a junior in civil engineering, said.

Later Wednesday, Ceresenak said this is a great opportunity to hit the ground sprinting. “We can begin working on the things we want to work on,” he said.

The four and a half hour wait was much longer than originally projected. Candidates and their supporters passed the time sitting in the Student Senate Chambers while votes were being tabulated. Andrew Tucker, the elections commission chair, said the delays were due to a large amount of write-in votes.

“We took every entry seriously,” Tucker, a senior in political science, said, adding that the exception of the write-ins, the elections were “fairly smooth.”

Tucker said there were seven positions that needed to be filled with write-in votes. “Everyone wrote someone in so the computer had to map each of those, and their variants, out,” he said.

Tucker also said the results were released much quicker than a few years ago, before the program was used. “It used to take the Elections Commission three to four days before,” he said.

This year’s election saw candidates running unopposed for vital positions. Two of the more notable unopposed campaigns were Kelli Rogers for Student Senate president and Elmo Lamm for student body tresurer.

Zachary Richard, a freshman in computer science, said there should have been more candidates running for the positions. Rogers, a junior in political science, agreed.

“I was disappointed, it shows people don’t think these positions matter,” she said.

Richard also said he didn’t see the candidates that were running uncontested. “They don’t need to when they are the only one running,” he said.

Sarah Deuhring, a freshman in communication, said the lack of candidates running wasn’t an issue for her.

“I would say it would be a problem if these elections were about the issues, but they weren’t,” she said.

Deuhring said she voted because it was important, regardless of who was running.

 ”Those that think they can’t do anything, make it harder for those who can [do something],” she said.