With a record voter turnout, Stoney Burke and Matt Josefy emerged from a crowded field of candidates to advance to a run-off for student body president.
Jonathan Lusk, Tim Bailey and John Magruder, all Corps nominees, won the three senior yell positions. Keith Lane and Mike Winn will face off in a runoff for the two junior yell positions against Paul Terrell and Ryan Bishop.
Results of the student body election were announced at the Academic Plaza by Student Government Association Election Commissioner Erin Eckhart after midnight. With 12,654 students casting ballots, the turnout this year was a record and surpassed the 9,479 turnout from 2002.
Josefy said he and his staff would continue to communicate his campaign theme “your voice matters.”
“We’re gonna keep doing exactly what we’ve been doing, and I think students will see how genuine we are,” Josefy said.
With voters almost evenly split among the top three candidates, Burke said he would work to reach out to students who voted for another candidate.
“We’ll keep stressing our theme of Aggie community,” Burke said. “The candidates came from and got support such different parts of campus and we need to mobilize those groups.”
Burke finished first with 2,665 votes (23 percent) and Josefy received 2,573 votes (22 percent). Luke Cheatham finished a close third 2,472 votes (21 percent). Karl Pfluger, 1,949 votes (16 percent); Kyle Carlton, 1,518 votes (13 percent) and Ed “El Ramos” Brown, 600 votes (5 percent) rounded out the field.
In the senior yell leader race, Jonathon Lusk, John Magruder and Tim Bailey took the top votes.
“We are very excited that all three seniors made it, John and Johnathon are great guys,” Tim Bailey said.
Lusk said his faith was a cornerstone of his service as yell leader.
“All I can say is God is sovereign and is in complete control of everything,” he said.
Junior yell leader candidates Mike Winn, Paul Terrell, Ryan Bishop and Keith Lane will advance to a run-off.
Winn recieved 1,731 votes, Terrell received 4,771 votes, Bishop recieved 5,426 votes and Lane received 1,796 votes.
“We are ready for another week of hard work. We just want to keep up what we are doing,” Terrell said.
Jason Huebing and Chris Mahaffe will advance to a runoff for Residence Hall Association president. Guy Faith was elected RHA vice president; Jenn Heiner, vice president for programs; Robert Garza, vice president for relations; Lauren Chrism, vice president for operations.
A senate candidate bloc that had pledged reform of student government and had endorsed Cheatham won 26 of 54 seats up for grabs.
In other races, Meredith Talley was elected Class of 2004 president; Jill DeWitt, secretary; Shaun Roberts, treasurer; Amber Miller, social secretary; Lindsey Shankl, historian. Jonathan Platt and Stephanie Good will compete in a runoff for Class of 2004 vice president.
For the 2005 class council, Tim Soeken was elected president; Courtney Wall, vice president; Sara Duggan, secretary; Mark Pyles, treasurer; Brandi Weishuh, social secretary; Courtney Fairc, historian.
For the 2006 class council, Brandon Davis and Cinnamon Hodge will advance to a runoff for president. Will Srubar was elected vice president; Krista Brod, secretary; and Melodie Jordan, historian. Lear Bowling was elected social secretary but was disqualified for not submitting to election officials his campaign’s financial information and the position is vacant.