Updated Friday, Feb. 23, 6 a.m.
Posted Friday, Feb. 23, 1:21 a.m.
Junior Marc Abanto will face sophomore Nicole Capp in the runoff election for Student Association President, the election oversight committee announced early Friday morning.
The Joint Elections Committee also announced that sophomore Brand Kroeger will vie for the executive vice president position against junior Nick D’Addario. The group released the vote tallies at around 4:30 a.m. in the Marvin Center after nearly seven hours of counting votes Thursday night and Friday morning.
Abanto received 28.9 percent of the vote while Capp garnered 26.7 percent. Kroeger ended the general election with 32 percent of the vote while D’Addario secured 28 percent.
A run-off between the top two vote-getting candidates for each race will occur this Wednesday and Thursday because no candidate got more than 40 percent of the vote.
Capp, nearly speechless after the results were announced, credited her spot in the runoff to basic campaign techniques.
“Grassroots, one-on-one conversations every day, every hour, we did it,” Capp said.
She garnered a substantial victory in the number of paper ballots cast, many of which came from the Law School. The Student Bar Association – the school’s umbrella student organization – endorsed Capp last week. Students could also vote electronically.
“It feels great,” she said. “It feels wonderful.”
Despite the strong turnout from graduate students, Abanto secured a higher total percentage of votes, which he credited to “mobilizing people.” Abanto said he is already looking forward to next week’s runoff election.
“We are going to try to let this sink in a little,” Abanto said. “Then, we will come back strong next week.”
Both Abanto’s running mate for executive vice president, D’Addario, also placed in the top two for the EVP race. Their slate, the Student Union, won 18 out of the 19 undergraduate Senate seats members of their group ran for.
“I feel that we have great momentum going into next week,” D’Addario said. “Our win is a credit to the hard work of our people.”
Their candidate for chair of Program Board, junior Jay Kaplan, won his election and sophomore Katie Prescott won the vice chair spot.
Kroeger, who ran for EVP on a ticket with junior David “Tito” Wilkinson, acknowledged the difficulties of going into the runoff as an independent facing a slated candidate.
“It’s always interesting to go up against a slate,” he said. “But we propose a strong alternative, and I think GW is ready for it.”
For a complete list of winners from Friday morning’s announcement check www.gwhatchet.com.
-Andrew Ramonas and Brandon Butler contributed to this report.
