The Elections Board announced the winners of the student government run-off elections on Thursday shortly after midnight.
Goizueta Business School junior and current Student Programming Council (SPC) Treasurer Michael Nathin was elected SPC President, Oxford freshman Noah Cole was elected Oxford Student Government Association (SGA) President, Goizueta Business School sophomore Paul Kagan was elected BBA Council Junior Representative and College freshman Raven Whitmore was elected Residence Hall Association (RHA) Vice President of Advocacy.
Nathin won by a margin of 457 votes against College junior Niyeti Shah, with a total vote count of 1,605.
"Being elected SPC President has been a dream of mine since joining the organization three years ago, and it is such an incredible feeling to have realized this feat," Nathin wrote in an email to the Wheel. "I am extremely grateful for this opportunity and cannot wait to begin initiatives to continue the SPC legacy of programming excellence."
He added that he is grateful for the help he has received from classmates over the last few weeks.
Originally, the SPC President race had three candidates, including Nathin, Shah and B-School junior Nick Bertha. SPC is a University-wide organization, so the entire student body was eligible to vote.
Former SPC President and B-School senior Raghvi Anand wrote in an email to the Wheel that every candidate who ran for the position was "extremely qualified."
Cole won by a margin of 26 votes against Oxford freshman Justin Ian Sia, with a total vote count of 408.
Kagan won against B-School sophomore Huyen Nguyen by a close margin of seven votes, with a total vote count of 93.
Whitmore won by a margin of 84 votes against College freshman Abe Adam, with a total vote count of 764.
Run-off elections were held from midnight on Monday, April 7 to 11:59 p.m. on April 9. A University-wide email was sent by the Elections Board on Sunday evening detailing the election period and included a link to the ballot.
The run-off elections yielded a decrease in voter turnout of more than 1,000 votes compared to the regular election period.
"Relative to past runoffs the number that voted in this one is actually much higher than it usually is, which is probably an effect of the SPC race attracting more people to vote than would for smaller positions if the runoff did not include a high-level position," College senior and Elections Board Chair Matthew Pesce wrote in an email to the Wheel.
In light of problems with the electronic ballot during the regular election, which resulted in some students receiving ballots that corresponded with their class standing by credit hours instead of their graduation year, the email addressed these issues by advising "students presented with an unexpected ballot" to email the Elections Board to override their class standing on the electronic ballot.
The email also stated that students' class standing data is taken from the official Registrar and/or Housing data.
–By Rupsha Basu
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