UPDATE April 4 5:42 p.m.:
The Office of Student Affairs sent out an email to the student body with the official election results. After the Membership Chair, Parliamentarian, Student Body President and the Student Senate Advisor reviewed the Election Code, they found that Anna Norkett was in fact elected as secretary.
The email states, “After thorough analysis of the documents, we found in the Election Code that ‘a candidate must receive a minimum of 50% of all the votes cast for that office.’ The total votes cast for Student Body Secretary was 1,833. From which, Anna Norkett received over 50% of the voting total from that office, making her the winner of the election.”
The secretary race will not proceed to a runoff as originally announced. Norkett has been elected the student body secretary for the 2014-15 academic year.
All other runoff elections will proceed as planned, beginning April 9 at midnight and ending April 10 at 5 p.m. Visit smu.edu/elections to vote.
Original story as published April 3:
The Student Senate election results were announced April 3 in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center. Ramon Trespalacios was re-elected as student body president, Monica Finnegan will be the student body vice president and the secretary election between Elliott Bouillion and Anna Norkett will proceed to a runoff next week.
Trespalacios is the only two-term student body president in SMU history.
“I’m really excited to keep serving the student body,” he said. “Working together with SMU students has been the best experience in my life.”
Finnegan is anxious to pursue her goals as vice president.
“I’m happy to be in a position where I can speak for the students,” she said. “It’s amazing.”
Out of 2,309 votes, Trespalacios received 1,526 and Finnegan received 1,237. Anna Norkett received 978 votes and Elliott Bouillion received 855. Because neither of the secretary candidates received 50 percent of the vote, the election will proceed to a runoff.
“I was shocked. It’s very rare you have a runoff between two candidates,” Bouillion said. “I encourage all students to participate in the runoff so we can have the best candidate in the position.”
“The runoff was unexpected,” Trespalacios said. “I did not see that coming. I encourage Elliott and Anna to campaign hard and I give the best of luck to both.”
Two referendums were also on the ballot: one for the Lesbia, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LBGT) Senate seat and another addressing graduate student representation.
The graduate student representation referendum passed with the required 2/3 majority while the LGBT seat referendum failed to reach it. However, a 50 percent majority was reached with 1,217 “yes” votes and 843 “no” votes. This turns out to be a 59 percent majority.
SPECTRUM Treasurer Colton Donica helped get the LGBT Senate seat bill onto the floor.
“I’m looking at this optimistically,” Donica said. “Over 50 percent voted yes. It’s good that our campus is slowly moving forward. It’s great to see the support. I finally feel like SMU is becoming my home.”
Donica and current Student Body Vice President Jaywin Malhi plan to start a petition in favor of the LGBT seat. They are aiming to collect 1,000 signatures.
“It’s been a 10 year fight,” Donica said. “We’re not going to stop. We’re going to bring the bill back.”
All runoff elections will take place next week, starting April 9 at midnight and ending April 10 at 5 p.m.
A list of all election results follows:
President: Ramon Trespalacios
Vice President: Monica Finnegan
Secretary: RUNOFF between Anna Norkett and Elliott Bouillion
Graduate Affairs Officer: Ian Phillips
Cox Senators: BlakeRainey, William Hammond, Elliot Bouillion, Larry Cui, JB Stockslager, Colleen McKenzie
Meadows Senator: Connor Volz
Pre-Major Senators: Greg Hopkins, James Jang, Trevor Thomas, Jun-Ho Koh, Dylan DeMuth, Whitney Babin, Thomas Schmedding
Dedman Senators: Emily Dombrowski, Mehdi Hami, Anna Norkett, Preston Hutcherson, Mason Potter, RUNOFF between Alexa Maffei and Spencer Forrest
Lyle Senators: Will O’Connor, Carter Dewey, Chase Harker, Austin McGinnis, Alexander Saladna
Simmons Senator: Sarah Tuohy
African-American Senator: Ryan Stoker
Asian-American Senator: Theresa Lee
Hispanic-American Senator: Monica Rodriguez
International Senator: Lechen Yuan
Student Center Governing Board: Tien Dang
Referendum 1 (LGBT Senate Seat): Failed
Referendum 2 (Graduate representation): Passed
