Story by Hayleigh Syens
Photo by Luke Nankivell
Student Senate executive board elections were held Monday. From midnight to 11:59 p.m., students logged on to blueView and cast their votes for student body president, vice president of student life and vice president of student activities.
After the ballots closed Monday night, Joey Gale was named the new student body president and Adam Graves was the new vice president of student activities.
Since none of the three candidates for vice president of student life achieved a majority of the votes, there was a runoff election between Josh Duden and Olivia O’Hea.
They were the two candidates who received the highest number of student votes.
After the runoff-election ballots closed Tuesday night, it was announced that vice president of student life for the 2014-2015 school year would be Josh Duden.
The voter turnout for the elections this year was higher than in past years, with over 1,400 votes cast in the initial election and 1,000 votes cast in the runoff election.
Candidates all commended each other for running clean races this year.
Past years have seen issues with candidates breaking election rules set forth by the Election Commission.
“Elections are definitely a stressful and time-consuming process. At the end of it, every candidate wants it to be rewarding,” said Joey Gale, newly elected student body president.
Soon after it was announced that Duden had won, all three Senate exec members met and began discussing plans for rest of the current school year and next year.
“We have a lot to look forward to. We hit the ground running already, and I hope that we’re able to have a new Senate that is excited to get started and make this session the best it can be,” Duden said.
“I’m excited to start going through applications for the new Student Activities Board and starting to work with them. I’m ready to start brainstorming and programming and getting everyone involved,” said Adam Graves, newly elected vice president of student activities. “I want to finish off the year strong and get ready for next year.”
Students are equally excited to see what the new Senate exec will do in the future.
“The pairing of Josh and Joey is not one that I was expecting. Anyone who would have won this election would have done a good job in the positions, but I’m interested to see how Josh and Joey work together,” said Jordan Toschak, a sophomore English and secondary education double major.
Campaigns for the general student Senate elections have already begun.
Voting will take place on blueView on Monday from midnight to 11:59 p.m.
The winners of the campaigns for general student Senate will be announced after the ballots close on Monday night.
