Elections for Student Body President almost ended without a runoff, as election officials announced Thursday that of the six candidates Mark Gold won 48.64 percent of the vote with 6,150 votes.
However since Gold was missing the 2.36 percent required to win the election, he will enter into a runoff with opponent Ryan Rieger, who received 14.88 percent of the vote, or 1,882 individual votes.
Before the announcement, students were varied in their candidate of choice, but after the results were read, students shared the surprise that the election was almost decided without a runoff.
“We’re pumped for the runoff,” said Jon Maldonado, a junior sports management major, who works on the Gold campaign. “Overall, the campaign was a lot of hard work, and that hard work has paid off.”
“I’m shocked, but amazed,” said Candace Kaspar, a junior agriculture leadership and development and member of Rieger’s campaign. “Our main goal was just to come and have fun. From here, we’ll hit it full force starting at 8 a.m. tomorrow.”
Gold was short by nearly 300 student votes of being named Student Body President. However, his preliminary lead doesn’t change the fact that he will have no advantage over Rieger for the runoff election.
“It’s back to square one. We’re back to zero-zero and a whole new campaign,” Gold said. “The message doesn’t change with the percentages.”
“It’s great to see Mark’s dream get that much closer to reality,” said Jeff Egger, a junior kinesiology major. Egger’s attitude mirrored the excitement and optimism of the rest of the Gold staff.
Rieger agreed that the runoff doesn’t change the meaning or issues behind the election.
“The same things that we’ve been campaigning on, that’s what we’ll be delivering,” Rieger said.
Election commission members said 13,000 students voted in the Student Body President election. They set a goal of increasing student participation from 2007 and succeeded, as 2008 vote numbers increased by 2,000.
Although voting participation increased, students involved in the election said they know there is room for improvement. Drew Ambrose, a junior management major who is on the Rieger campaign, acknowledged the need for more students to vote.
“We are absolutely floored with emotions and happiness,” Ambrose said. “Now we’re ready to hit it harder than we did the last week and a half and get even more people out to vote.”