First-Year election ends in a run-off

Photos by Times-Delphic Staff

As the clock hit midnight yesterday morning, students gathered near Pomerantz Stage in Olmsted to await the announcement of the First-Year Senator elections.

Candidates Justin Kochanski and Joey Gale were voted as the finalists and will enter another week of campaigning.

The Election Commission took the stage after midnight and thanked everyone for coming. Senior Commission Co-Chair Jessie Hill said that there would be no “fancy PowerPoints” that night. Instead, she just made the announcement.

She said that over half of the first-year class voted, and over 700 votes were counted. In order to receive an outright win, a candidate has to receive 50 percent plus one of the votes, Hill said.

Kochanski received the most votes with 258. Gale, who ran as a write-in candidate, earned 153. The other five candidates — Taylor Larson, Ashley Garvais, Ekta Haria, Josh Schoenblatt and Kelly Tafoya — collectively earned 294 votes.

Each first-year student was allotted two votes for separate candidates during the voting period.

After the vote totals were announced, Kochanski said that it was a “good feeling” after the past week of campaigning.

Gale also said he felt the same.

“Nobody ever wants to be a write-in candidate for a major election,” Gale said. “I’m definitely glad that there was a lot of people out there who wrote my name in.”

Kochanski said that in the upcoming campaign cycle, he was going to try and not receive as many technicalities, or penalty points, but said that he was “still Justin.”

Gale said that he was still using his same platform; he was just going to be dropping the “write-in” aspect of his campaign. He also said that he might make some small changes.

Each of the candidates in the run-off election has something different that they can offer to the first-year population at Drake.

“I can offer them someone that will willingly fight for them,” Kochanski said. “Some(one) that has experience speaking and debating, someone who will sit around the table and represent them.”

He said that he could represent the first-year class in any manner, whether it dealt with academic affairs or Sodexo food quality.

Gale said that he could utilize a lot of tools on campus such as the First-Year Interest Committee. He would also like to use email as a tool for communication in the first-year class.

Kochanski said he was looking forward to talking to more people during this new campaign period.

Gale said he was looking to change-up a few of his campaign methods now that his name was on the ballot.

“I’m excited to change the tactics of how I campaign,” he said.

They both collectively thanked the first-year class for voting for them in the first round of elections, as well.

The run-off election begins next Monday on blueView.

Vote totals by candidate:

Kochanski:  258

Gale:  153

Larson:  78

Haria:  74

Schoenblatt:  60

Tafoya:  53

Garvais:  29

Penalty points earned by candidates:

Kochanski: 175

Gale: 0

Larson: 275

Haria: 100

Schoenblatt: 469

Tafoya: 0

Garvais: 125