For the second year in a row the Tempe Undergraduate Student Government will feature a runoff election between the top two campaigns.
The Benedict and DeGravina tickets will participate in a special one-week election to determine who leads TUSG in the next year. With no ticket receiving more than 51 percent of the vote, the top two campaigns will now compete for a new set of votes.
A final voting day will be held on April 5 and the results will be announced the following day.
The Benedict ticket, led by presidential candidate Brittany Benedict, received 1766 votes, about 39 percent of the total votes. The ticket fell 12 percentage points short of reaching a majority. The DeGravina ticket, led by Aundrea DeGravina, received 1274 votes, about 28 percent of the total votes.
The two other tickets earned a combined 33 percent of the vote, with Brian Smith’s ticket earning about 22 percent and Kanin Pruter’s ticket earning about 11 percent.
Benedict said her ticket is thankful to make the runoff, knowing that a win would be difficult in this election.
“We knew going in with four tickets, it would be really hard to pull off a win, trying to get that 51 percent,” Benedict said. “We’re extremely happy we made it into the runoff and we’re ready to hit the ground running next week.”
Benedict said she was proud of the campaign so far and that she would meet with her team, Vice President of Services candidate Kelsey Wilson and Vice President of Policy candidate Lester Nnagbo, to discuss strategy during the runoff.
“Honestly, I think we did as best as we could,” Benedict said. “I wouldn’t have done anything different.”
DeGravina shared a similar sentiment, saying that she is extremely happy to be in the runoff. This is DeGravina’s second runoff in a row, having come second to Brandon Bishop in TUSG elections last year.
“Everyone ran a heck of a campaign,” DeGravina said. “That in itself is a win for the student body.”
DeGravina said her ticket will have to keep momentum going to makeup for the votes they didn’t receive in this election.
“You have to remind the people that are behind you that it is not over, it is far from over,” DeGravina said.
Here's the announcement!! pic.twitter.com/Egb9rdtHsq
— Mitch(ell) Atencio (@mitchellatencio) March 30, 2017
Both the Benedict and DeGravina ticket said they hoped to meet with the losing tickets to secure an endorsement. Smith and Pruter both said they would take some time before deciding who to endorse.
“I’m gonna do some thinking, some soul searching and then make a decision if I’m even going to endorse anybody this election,” Pruter said.
Smith said he would endorse after meeting with each ticket.
“(I) couldn’t speak higher enough of each ticket and their goals moving forward,” Smith said. “I’m going to do my due diligence to make sure that everyone that followed me and supported my ticket, that my endorsement is of the best intentions for all of them.”
Reach the reporter at maatenci@asu.edu or follow @mitchellatencio on Twitter.
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