Runoff pits Andersen against Howard

SGA announced the preliminary results of this year ' s elections Wednesday evening.

David Andersen and Andrew Howard will face off for the position of undergraduate student body president in runoff elections next week.

In a year of record voter turnout, Andersen received 1,954 of 4,511 votes (43 percent), while Howard tallied 829 (18 percent).

Voting for the runoff election will take place Monday and Tuesday of next week.

Elections Chair Chris Rankine said the results were " not technically official " as of Thursday morning due to investigations into reported violations in the presidential race.

However, at the time of the announcement, he said none of the two leading candidates had violations still pending against them.

The candidates are busy making preparations for the runoff election next week.

" There ' s a lot of work to be done, but its not something that can ' t be done, " Howard said.

" We are down by a lot, but this has been done before. We have good ideas and goals that are accomplishable; the main challenge will be getting people out there to vote, " Howard said.

Andersen was not available for comment Wednesday night.

In the undergraduate vice presidential race, Saira Amir won with 2,365 votes, which translated to 52 percent of the vote in that race.

On the graduate side, Mitch Keller tallied 274 votes to Adam Brancato ' s 169, winning the vice presidential race.

Kasi David, who ran unopposed, will serve a second term as graduate student body president.

Voter turnout for the undergraduate race was 42 percent, topping last year ' s total of 3,511 votes and setting a new record. About 10 percent of the graduate population voted.

Patrick Cook, chair of SGA ' s Public Relations, said that increased publicity played a role in convincing the student body to vote.

" We had a lot more publicizing of the election this year from SGA committees and from the candidates themselves, " Cook said. " We had a lot more candidates this year [than in previous years], and they did a good job of influencing students to get out there and vote. "

The total number of votes jumped by nearly 1,000 Wednesday morning after SGA sent out an email to the student body at 10:10 a.m. asking students to vote, saying, " it only takes a second. " In the email, SGA also reminded students that " Georgia Tech competes regionally and within the ACC to have the highest voter turnout. "

Cook said, " We sent out two emails this year, whereas last year we only sent out the one [that is usually sent] at the beginning of the campaigning period. "

Rankine said that the campaigning process went well, except for several violations of the Elections Code resulting in minor reprimands. Another violation is still pending because the accuser did not show up to a meeting with the committee. Also, Rankine said that " some campaign finance reports are being looked into for possible discrepancies. "

The first of the two issues already discussed by the committee concerned the use of chalk on sidewalks for campaigning.

" The part of the Elections Code regarding this issue is not very clear. The statements in this section could be taken differently by different candidates, and the candidate [who was responsible for the violation] misread it, " Rankine said.

The candidate was not punished for the violation. If the committee allowed candidates to use sidewalks to campaign, Rankine said, it would defeat the purpose of setting limits on campaigning by other methods.

" I would like to see this issue being addressed by next year ' s committee, " Rankine said. " Our intent is to promote elections of a higher caliber. We are trying to keep it civil by setting limits on campaigning - for instance, candidates cannot cover entire walls with fliers. "

In a second violation, Andersen and Howard, as well as Raghav Himatsingka, who ran for sophomore representative, were charged with minor violations for posting fliers too close to the computer lab on the second floor of the Van Leer Building. They were required to take down the posters, but were not penalized otherwise because, according to Rankine, they were unaware of the rule at the time.

In addition to presidential and vice presidential winners, SGA announced next year ' s elected representatives for all majors and classes, as well as class representatives.

Danny Puckett won the race for senior class president with 699 votes, Emily Marx won junior class president with 531 votes, Patrick Cook won sophomore class president with 282 votes, and Matt Peeples won freshman class president with 469 votes.