The Northwestern student body elected Jay Schumacher as the Associated Student Government president Tuesday, overwhelmingly choosing him over a variety of write-in candidates who at times seemed poised to threaten his campaign.
The final results for the election were 2024 votes for Schumacher, or 68.1 percent of the total vote, and 277 votes for “no confidence,” or 9 percent of the total vote. As the only student on the ballot, Schumacher’s biggest threat came from write-in candidate “Dickie Humps,” who garnered 316 votes to come in second place with 10.6 percent of the votes.
About 3330 students voted. The remainder of students who voted either chose to abstain or to write in another candidate.
As Tuesday evening approached and the polls on HereAndNow closed, Schumacher said he became increasingly worried that “Dickie Humps” would receive enough write-in votes to keep him from winning a simple majority, thus forcing a runoff election.
“I first became worried when I saw the chalking last night,” the Communication junior said. “(Humps’ supporters) went all out. While I appreciate the humor, I wish they would tone it down sometimes. I found it a little offensive sometimes.”
A runoff election against “no confidence” was never one of Schumacher’s worries, he said.
Schumacher campaigned on Tuesday as if he were not the only student on the ballot, he said. His day started at 5 a.m. when he wrote e-mails to students requesting votes. He spent four hours handing out fliers at The Arch and three hours going door-to-door in dorms.
“I don’t know what else I could have done,” he said. “The only thing that would be nice is to have someone to keep pace with.”
As 8 p.m. passed and murmurs of a runoff election began to circulate among ASG insiders, Schumacher stood outside Norris University Center for the final results. With current president Patrick Keenan-Devlin and about half a dozen supporters with him, he waited for more than an hour for a call from the ASG Election Commission.
“The wait’s a little taxing,” he said. “We have been in the dark all day, which I think is fair. – It’s a little nerve-wracking.”
Eventually, Schumacher, still ASG executive vice president, had to attend his weekly ASG Executive Committee meeting.
At about 9:30 p.m., the call finally arrived and Schumacher heard there would be no runoff election. As he stepped outside Norris, a crowd of about 20 gathered to congratulate him, and Keenan-Devlin, a Music senior, surprised him by pouring champagne over his head.
“It’s been a tradition since ’69 to pour champagne,” the outgoing president said.
Schumacher said he was relieved to finally have the results.
“It’s a little surreal,” he said. “I don’t think much is going to change. I have ASG business tomorrow.”
Reach Nitesh Srivastava at [email protected].
