Posted Thursday, March 1, 11:48 p.m.
Updated Friday, March 2, 2:17 a.m.
Sophomores Nicole Capp and Brand Kroeger will be next year’s Student Association president and executive vice president, the Joint Elections Committee announced Thursday night in the Marvin Center.
Capp beat Abanto by 8 percentage points, garnering 1,199 votes – or 54 percent – compared to Abanto’s 1,010 votes. Kroeger received 59 percent of the vote with 1,202 votes compared to 841 votes for his opponent junior Nick D’Addario.
Capp will be the first female president in nine years and the youngest president to serve in four years.
“We made history tonight,” said Capp, who ran as an independent. “Never before has a candidate had so many obstacles to overcome.”
Capp came in second with 817 votes to Abanto during last week’s general election. Juniors David “Tito” Wilkinson, Casey Pond and Michael Ray Huerta came in third, fourth and fifth in the general election.
“We were able to win because students realized that there was a time for change,” Capp said shortly after the JEC announced the results Thursday night.
Kroeger’s defeat over D’Addario makes him the youngest executive vice president in two years.
“It feels absolutely fantastic to have real students voices heard for progress,” Kroeger said. “The work starts today.”
Kroeger garnered 950 votes in the general election last week, coming in ahead of D’Addario, sophomore Andrew Cooper, junior Chris Rotella and junior Elliot Bell-Krasner.
Abanto and D’Addario left quickly after the JEC announced the results and Student Union campaign manager junior Kenny Gold said neither candidate was available for comment. Gold credited Capp’s success in the election to her unique focus.
“I think both (Marc and Nicole) ran unbelievable campaigns,” Gold said. “Nicole focused heavily on grads and they voted again.”
Capp garnered 369 votes to Abanto’s 40 paper ballot votes. The paper ballot is the method used by many graduate students cast who votes in the Law School and Medical School. The Marvin Center and Duques Hall, which many undergraduate students use, feature electronic ballots.
Gold said he is still happy with the success of the slate as a whole.
“I do not regret any candidate running on our slate, every person on our campaign was great,” he said Thursday night. “If I could change one thing I would focus more on graduate votes.”
The Student Union slate sweeped the senate, gaining all of the senate seats in this year’s election.
In the general election members of the Student Union slate won all but one of the undergraduate senate seats. But on Thursday, the JEC revoked the Senator-elect Matt Cohen’s victory (SoB-U), for overspending on “campaign finances due to an improper claim of a jointly reported expenditure,” according to the JEC complaint. The report indicates that Cohen rented a bus with Kroeger and Wilkinson, which resulted in six penalties from the JEC. When candidates receive six violations, they are disqualified.
The third-place candidate for the SoB Senate seat, freshman Jake Lansburgh from the Student Union, will replace Cohen as SoB senator-elect.
Kroeger, an independent who formerly ran with Wilkinson, said that he will work to unify the senate and the executive.
“My role is going is to build a consolidated senate,” Kroeger said. “I am going to do everything I can so we have a unified voice.”
The newly elected SA representatives from the past two weeks will assume their seats in the end of April during a swearing-in ceremony.
