Sophomore Matthew Van Hoeck won the vice president of student life position by just four votes when election results were announced shortly after midnight Tuesday morning.
Van Hoeck captured 481 votes, or 50.2 percent, while Laurent received 477 votes, or 49.8 percent.
Junior Jessie Hill, the Co-chair of the Election Commission, said she has seen many close elections.
“It just proves that all candidates are campaigning hard,” Hill said.
Van Hoeck is looking forward to his new position and said that he developed a lot of ideas throughout the campaign.
“It was a lot of work overall and I’ve really learned about myself quite a bit,” Van Hoeck said.
Van Hoeck and Laurent, both senators this year, campaigned in a run-off election this past week, after neither captured the 50 percent plus one vote requirement set by the Election Commission for student senate officer elections. They were both the top two vote getters in the three-way race in the last election.
“It was a really good race,” Laurent said. “It’s hard to get the turn-out for the run-off, and I think Matt will do a great job.”
There was a total of 958 votes cast in the run-off election, down from the nearly 1,200 that voted in last week’s election.
Election Commission Chair Alex Bergman said that the election ran smoothly, with the exception of some campaign complaints that his committee oversees.
“It was a good election, excepts clear intentional destruction of campaign property directed at particular candidates,” Bergman said.
Van Hoeck will join the other two executive officers, which were elected last week, as leaders of next year’s senate. Junior Greg Larson was elected student body president and sophomore Jessica Hamilton won the vice president of student activities position.
Wow! Really shows just how much 1 vote counts – that each and every person a candidate talks to can make a difference.