SG votes result in runoff

Love it or hate it, campaigning for the USF student body president will continue for yet another week.

With no presidential candidate claiming a 50 percent majority in Monday and Tuesday’s student body elections, Marigelle Malapira, supervisor of the Election Rules Commission (ERC), announced a runoff election between Maxon Victor and Andrew Aubery, which is to be held Monday, March 7 and Tuesday, March 8.

Speaking to a crowd of about 100 students gathered in MLK plaza Tuesday night, Malapira read the “unofficial” totals of the election.

Results are unofficial pending certification.

About 4,946 votes for president were counted. The tickets of Victor and Sameer Ahmed received a total of 1,185 votes, and Aubery and Jessica Asuncion received a total of 1,182 votes. The ticket of Brandon Faza and Brittany Link received a total of 1,161 votes for third place.

The three other tickets that ran received the following votes: Mike Johnson and Kyle Myers received 953 votes; Silverlee Hernandez and Matthew Couret received 171 votes; and Glenn Gilzean and Xavier Johnson received 294 votes.

Amid a constant barrage of phone calls and congratulations, the self-proclaimed “T-P-C” (The People’s Candidate) Victor simply described next week’s runoff as “overtime.”

“We busted our butts to make this happen,” Victor said. “We came from the bottom and we will keep pushing hard. This is just overtime. One more week.”

Aubery, however, who described himself as confident in next week’s runoffs, took the time to continue promoting himself and his past experience in Student Government.

Aubery, who has been the student body vice president for the past year, described the office as “coming with a four-month learning curve.”

“You can’t just go into President Genshaft’s office and start making demands,” Aubery explained. “You have to build relationships with the administration and find out how everything works first.”

Still, the election was not just about who will lead USF for the next year. Students also voted for SG senators and on a number of constitutional amendments.

There were seven amendments on issues ranging from a 60-seat cap on the number of SG senators, to prohibiting SG Supreme Court justices from holding any other position in SG. Subsequently, all amendments passed.

The battle for SG senate, however, has also sparked a runoff election in the College of Arts and Sciences.

There were a total of 31 senate seats open in the College of Arts and Sciences, and as of Tuesday night, 30 of them have been secured. Frank Harrison led the way with 865 total votes. The last seat, however, has sparked another runoff election to be held next week between Suhail Rifaie and James Culp.