SG election: By the numbers

Moneer Kheireddine and Shaquille Kent won the majority vote in the Student Body Presidential election. ORACLE PHOTO/JACKIE BENITEZ

Approximately 17.4 percent of the student body voted during the general election for student body president and vice president last week.

Moneer Kheireddine and Shaquille Kent, the president- and vice president-elect, won the majority in all but one of the 10 colleges. The ticket received 5,385 of the 8,636 votes cast (62.35 percent). 

Kheireddine and Kent won by about 200 more votes than were cast in total last year.

Opponents Ryan Soscia and Logan Holland received 3,251 (37.64 percent) of the overall votes. Their ticket won the majority vote in the College of Pharmacy, 32 to 31.

Kheireddine and Kent have yet to be announced as the official winners of the election, however, due to several grievances filed against their campaign. Grievances have also been filed against Soscia and Holland’s ticket. 

The grievances could cause the results of the election to change. It would take confirmation of seven minor grievances or one major grievance for a ticket to be disqualified. The Election Rules Committee reviews minor grievances, while major grievances go to the Student Government Supreme Court.

The grievances are expected to take four weeks to review, according to Jennifer Bielen, assistant director of Student Government Advising, Training & Operations.

Students also voted to continue to pay the $1-per-credit-hour Student Green Energy Fee that goes toward funding student-led projects, such as solar panels on top of the MSC and refillable water bottle centers attached to drinking fountains. According to the unverified results, 5,447 students voted in favor of the fee, with 1,433 against it.

Students also overwhelmingly voted yes for the student referendum, ‘USF Divest from fossil fuels, private prisons, and companies complicit in human rights violations.’ It calls for the USF Foundation to end investments in companies allegedly contributing to fossil fuels, benefiting from private prisons or complicit in human rights violations. 

The referendum received 7,236 in favor and 923 against it. It is nonbinding and does not require action by the Foundation or university.