By Jonathan Smith, Editor in Chief
Students Association elections ended in a runoff for vice president Thursday, and students elected a president and treasurer during general voting April 11-12.
Jordan Williams, junior accounting and finance major from Longview, won the vice president run-off election against Brandon Smith, junior political science major from Overland Park, Kan., with 373 votes to Smith’s 260.
Williams will join Maher Saab, junior political science major from Abilene and newly elected president of SA, and Tyler Cosgrove, SA treasurer and senior finance major from Amarillo, as SA officers next year.
Williams’ 332 votes forced a runoff with Smith, the leading vote-getter in the general election, after Smith’s 571 votes fell 70 short of garnering 50 percent of the vote. SA rules require a candidate to receive more than 50 percent of total votes cast to win.
With four initial candidates in the vice presidential race, Williams said the runoff and the results of the general election were not unexpected.
“I wasn’t entirely surprised with the percentages in the general election,” Williams said. “I expected [Smith] to have a lot of support in the first election.”
When informed of the general election’s results, Williams said he immediately went to work trying to get the support of those students who had voted for Eric Johnson, junior finance major from Boerne, and Manda Mosley, junior political science major from Corpus Christi, the other two candidates for vice president.
“Votes that went to those other candidates [Mosley and Johnson] have a big effect on the next day’s election,” said Melanie Booker, current SA vice president and chair of the elections. “I think Eric and Manda might have influenced the runoff more than anyone else.”
Saab easily won the presidency with 731 votes to 579 for Cameron Hartsell, junior political science major from Gilmer.
Cosgrove won his third term as treasurer, earning 995 votes in his uncontested election.
The 1,310 votes cast in the general election represented approximately a 300 vote increase beyond last year’s voting, an increase Booker credited to good campaigning by the candidates and better awareness among the students about the election.
Saab and Williams will spend the last few weeks of school spending time in the SA office with Booker and Justin Scott, current SA president, learning more specifics about the positions for which they were hired.
Saab said he looks forward to beginning to write out the vision for next year’s Congress and deciding what the priorities will be.
Saab, Williams and Cosgrove will first interview candidates for and select an SA secretary in the coming weeks then will appoint administrative officers to fill out next year’s cabinet of officers.
