Keyworth re-elected to serve second term as Council VPO; Nabors elected EVP; Udumaga elected VPA
Jequeatta Upton, a second-year College student and outgoing Student Council representative, was elected Student Council president with 2,993 votes, edging out second place Thomas Gibson, a third-year College student and outgoing Council representative, by 438 votes.
Upton originally entered the race for Council executive vice president but said she decided to switch when she realized she had a lot of student-body support for a presidential run.
Upton said she was excited about working with the newly-elected Council and looks forward to a smooth transition.
"I know I have great personal relationships with everyone that was elected," Upton said.
Curran Jhanjee, a third-year College student, came in third place in the presidential race.
Jhanjee laughed when asked about the results.
"Probably the best person won," Jhanjee said. "I had a good time. I kind of expected the results."
Darius Nabors, a second-year College student and outgoing Council representative, was elected executive vice president with over 60 percent of the vote in the final instant-runoff tabulation.
"The members who got elected are going to do a great job," Nabors said.
College third-year Rebecca Keyworth ran unopposed for her second term as vice president of organizations.
"It should be a good executive board," said Keyworth. "I couldn't have called it."
Okey Udumaga, a second-year College student and current Council Safe Ride Committee chair, was elected vice president of administration, edging out Monti Lawson, the outgoing First Year Council president, by 201 votes.
"I am satisfied with the results," Udumaga said.
First-year Engineering student Ryan Taylor was elected Engineering representative.
"I m looking forward to bringing a new perspective to student self-governance," Taylor said. "I'm kind of a newbie."
Taylor said he wanted to increase interest in Council by keeping a more updated Web site and having representatives regularly report back to their constituencies.
Outgoing Council President Noah Sullivan characterized the elections as "hard-fought."
"A lot of times, it had to go down to a final runoff," Sullivan said.
Sullivan said he was confident in the incoming Council's ability as a "strong, dynamic group."
Some candidates did not feel that campaign violations previously addressed by the University Board of Elections affected the election outcome.
"They were all minor violations and misinterpretations," Upton said.
The results announced yesterday were provisionally certified and will be officially certified by Friday.
"There were no problems with the voting system," UBE Chair Steve Yang said.
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.