Five members of B.O.L.D. and two members of F.O.C.U.S. were elected to lead the Student Government Inc. Electoral Board for the 2012-2013 school year. Junior Christian Williams from F.O.C.U.S. (Finding Our Common United Stance) will lead the board as President after defeating the incumbent, Vice President Kevin Grover, by 84 votes.
The results were announced by the elections committee on March 27 after two days of online voting. A total of 1,429 votes were cast, according to Kamya Chandra, chair of the Elections Committee.
Voting lasted from midnight on March 26 until noon on the 27 on St. John’s Central. Students were also able to vote in person in the D’Angelo Center Foyer.
Grover was the only member of the B.O.L.D. ticket (Be Original, Lead Different) to not be elected to the executive board. Elizabeth Sheehan, incumbent sophomore senator, was voted as Secretary. Elaine Jorge was elected as Treasurer and Oscar Diaz won Vice-
President.
B.O.L.D took two of the three senatorial positions with Johann Kerr winning Junior Senator and Nicole Mastrangelo winning Senior Senator.
Jennifer Rankin, from Williams’ F.O.C.U.S. ticket, will be the Sophomore Senator.
Mike Lopato, the only student running on an independent ticket, came in last place for Senior Senator.
Chandra said that she would not comment on the results, but that she was pleased with the increased number of voters and the way the campaigning went.
Williams said that he was emotional following the announcement of the results. “I’m overjoyed and humbled and grateful to the student body,” he said.
Williams said that he was excited to take charge of the position and said he looks forward to working with members from the other party.
“I could work well with anybody,” he said. “This is nothing that can’t be sorted out.”
The members of B.O.L.D. who won their races experienced mixed emotions of excitement and disappointment in not having their leader elected to president.
Secretary-elect Sheehan said that while she was excited to take over her new role, she was experiencing grief because of B.O.L.D.’s loss in the presidential category.
“My heart is breaking for him,” she said referring to Grover, while trying to hold back tears.
Grover said that while he felt disappointed by the results of the election, he had faith in Williams to carry out the duties of the president.
“I think he’s going to do a great job,” he said. “He has great people skills and that will work in his favor.”
Williams called Grover a personal friend of his, and said he felt honored to run against him. “It was humbling to go up against a man of that caliber,” he said.
Junior Senator-elect Kerr said that the varying party members would help to keep members of the electoral board honest.
“I know we’ll still be able to go forward and do something positive,” he said. “We both will keep each other accountable for what the other does.”
When asked if Grover had any plans to still work with SGI, he said that he wasn’t sure right now.
Williams said, however, that he was sure Grover wasn’t done with student government. “I’ll still call him Mr. SGI,” he said.
The new electoral board will take office at the end of the semester on May 16.
