Edited by Sean Collins Walsh
Communication junior Mike McGee and Weinberg junior Tommy Smithburg have won the positions of Associated Student Government president and vice president.
The McGee-Smithburg ticket won with 60 percent of the vote – 2,526 votes. The Pulte-Dawson ticket received 40 percent of the votes, with 1,684 votes.
There were 82 abstentions, according to ASG Election Commissioner Paul David Shrader, a Weinberg senior.
Shrader said 4,292 votes were cast this year, only 163 fewer than in the general election.
About 2,800 undergraduates voted in last year’s runoff between Neal Sales-Griffin and Mark Crain.
It took the election commission about 15 minutes to come to the final tally tonight after polls closed at 7:00 p.m., Shrader said. He said the controversy surrounding an e-mail sent by Academic Director-elect Muhammad Safdari and the sanctions levied by the elections committee had an effect on the runoff results.
“I think undoubtedly that the events of the last two days, with rumors going around originating from Muhammad (Safdari)’s email, have had an effect on the voting outcomes,” he said.
Shrader did not elaborate on what that effect might have been.
Regarding the note posted to the ASG elections Web site in response to Safdari’s email and the election committee’s citation of the McGee-Smithburg campaign, Shrader said the committee handled the situation competently.
“We (the election committee) dealt with the concerns in the most fair and equitable way,” he said.
The presidential race went to a runoff after neither candidate received a majority in Wednesday’s election. Pulte, a Medill junior, received 48.6 percent of the student vote and McGee, a Communication junior, received 47.9 percent of the student vote – only a 33-vote difference between the two.
Outgoing president Neal Sales-Griffin said the university is “in good hands” with McGee as president.
Sales-Griffin said he did not expect so many people to vote in the runoff election.
“I’m not surprised, I’m impressed,” Sales-Griffin said. “What that means to me is that more people are becoming invested in ASG. More people care. And that’s what we were trying to do this year.”
— Matt Spector, Elise Foley and Megan Crepeau
Check outThe Daily’s ASG blog for more updates.
Related:McGee wins presidency with dedicated supportersPulte reflects on his campaign
