Posted Feb. 28, 2005.
Juniors Kyle Taylor and Joe Gallina face a run-off election for Student Government president because neither got the required 40 percent of the 974 tallied votes. Leah Kreimer won vice president and Zach Ulrich won comptroller. Secretary remains undecided as no one got the 10 percent required for a write-in candidate.
Students can cast their votes for president on Thursday in Mary Graydon Center room 120 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Board of Elections has yet to establish where and when the results will be announced.
"I'm excited as hell," said Gallina, who got 31 percent of the vote. "We worked hard ... hopefully we can come out victorious on Thursday."
Gallina serves as chair of the finance committee on the General Assembly, the Student Confederation's legislative body.
Taylor, who got 30.5 percent of the vote, said he felt "complete overwhelming excitement" when the results were announced.
"I just feel honored to be in this position because the other candidates were all so strong," he said.
Taylor served as SC vice president last spring after Marguerite Meyer resigned. The semester prior he served as Eagle Nights director.
Presidential candidates James Gardner and Nick Johnson, who each got 17 percent of the vote, said they will endorse Taylor and help him campaign.
"I'm very happy with the turnout ... I had a great time campaigning," said Johnson, a junior in the School of Public Affairs. "But now it's time to focus on the run-off."
Gardner said he endorsed Taylor because Taylor has "the right attitude toward the administration."
"I think we would have hoped for a different outcome but I'm proud of the campaign we ran. I will be happily endorsing Kyle Taylor for president," said Gardner, a junior in SPA. "I feel he will be able to accomplish a lot of what he wants to accomplish."
Current SC president Polson Kanneth, who won in a run-off against Steve Gilbert last spring, said the runoff candidates will have to work to get voters to the polls again.
"It should be exciting to watch these guys campaign from dawn to dusk basically," he said. "You have to let people know they have to vote one more time ... this is a brand new election, you're starting from scratch."
Kreimer, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences who got 54.1 percent of the vote, didn't comment on who she will endorse, but said she's ready to get started.
"I'm excited to hit the ground running in April," she said.
The transition ceremony will be held April 17.
Adam Rosenblatt, a sophomore in SPA who got 30.5 percent of the vice presidential vote, said he would continue to serve on the GA as chairman of the Academic Review committee.
Ulrich, who got 43.5 percent of the vote for comptroller, said he looks forward to mending relations with current comptroller Moamar Tidjani-Dourodjaye after a campaign he described as full of "hardships."
"My number one priority ... is to settle any disputes I have with Moamar," he said. "That needs to happen slowly and it needs to happen tactfully."
Ali Kahn, a junior in the Kogod School of Business and the current associate comptroller, said he was surprised that he didn't win, given his endorsements from the College Democrats, College Republicans, Screaming Eagles and other groups. He got 37.2 percent of the vote.
"Throughout the weekend I felt that if the election numbers were going to be low, Ulrich would have the advantage," he said, "and I feel that because of the low turnout, he was able to take the inside turn."
Hye-Jin Lee, chairman of the Board of Elections, said she thought the process went smoothly and turnout was good despite bad weather.
"I was afraid it would be a politically apathetic year, however it averages pretty high from the past elections," she said. "Overall, I think the electronic voting process was very efficient and effective"
