Residence Hall Association President Arielle Geismar was elected president of the Student Association Saturday, concluding a campaign season marked by ballot disputes and Student Court cases.
Joint Elections Commissioner Fatima Konte said Geismar received 60.5 percent of students’ votes after 32 rounds of eliminating candidates through ranked-choice voting. Geismar pledged during her campaign to highlight sexual assault resources on campus, push to hire more mental health counselors and facilitate roundtables between administrators and students.
“To the students, thank you so much for your support,” Geismar said in an interview. “I believe this position is a vehicle to uplift student voices, and at the end of the day, that’s what I’ll be doing. My ears are always open. My goal is to uplift the work that students are doing, and I am beyond excited and honored to be able to do that.”
Student voter turnout dropped from last year’s near-record low, falling to 2,190 voters in this year’s election – 500 fewer than last year’s total of 2,690 votes, according to the JEC’s unverified election results, which The Hatchet obtained. About 8.5 percent of eligible students voted in this year’s election.
SA Senate Chairperson Pro Tempore Demetrius Apostolis defeated SA Treasurer Arya Thakur in the vice presidential race, securing 52.17 percent of the vote in the first round of voting. Apostolis said he plans to expand dining options, improve the SA’s financial transparency and make the SA a more welcoming environment.
Apostolis said he is looking forward to “being a voice for students” in his new role as vice president.
“The one thing I would like to say is we’re just getting started,” Apostolis said. “It’s the time that we’re able to really put our best foot forward. I’m super excited to meet with students from across the campus to make sure that students are supported.”
SA Sen. Rami Hanash Jr., GWSB-U, received the second-highest share of votes in the presidential race and reached 39.5 percent of the vote in the final round, according to the election results. Former SA senior policy adviser Edy Koenigs and former SA transportation secretary Nathan Orner came in fourth and fifth places in the presidential race, respectively.
Hanash said while the results of the SA presidential election were not what he wanted, he feels he gave “100 percent” throughout the campaign process. He said Geismar will be able to bring students together during her term as president, and he “wishes her the best.”
“I’d like to thank everybody who voted for me, who reached out, supported me in any way during this campaign,” Hanash said in an interview. “It means the world, and I couldn’t have done it without each and every single one of those people who supported me.”
SA Executive Chief of Staff Keanu Rowe placed third in the race for SA president and was eliminated with 26.4 percent of the votes in the second-to-last round.
Rowe said he was disappointed by the election results, but he is “proud” of the work he and his team put into the campaign. He said he awaits Geismar’s administration with excitement. Rowe said he would like to continue participating in the SA moving forward.
“She brings a unique perspective, and I think she’ll do a great job,” Rowe said. “I hope that she’s able to fulfill a lot of her campaign platforms, and I hope that she’s able to execute it surrounded by a team of positive people, like-minded people that are able to execute that vision.”
Koenigs said Geismar was an “amazing” candidate, and she is excited to see a president who shares her “feminine-presenting and queer” identities. She said she wants to see Geismar address sexual assault issues as well as dining and campus accessibility.
“I think she has some really good ideas about sexual assault and I’m really excited to see what she does,” Koenigs said.
Orner declined to comment on his loss but congratulated Geismar on her win in an Instagram post.
Thakur, who lost the race for SA vice president, said he expects Apostolis to be a strong vice president, further building upon his progress on the SA, like his work to organize the GW Career Exploration EXPO earlier this year.
“I think Demetrius has done a lot in the SA already, the career fair is one big thing that he’s done and I know he’s going to continue to expand on that,” Thakur said. “He’s a good person. The SA’s in good hands.”
In ranked-choice voting, students rank candidates in order of their preference. Candidates with the fewest first-choice votes are eliminated from the first round of tallying the results. The JEC eliminates candidates with the fewest votes in each round in descending order of second- and third-choice votes and so on until one candidate reaches 50 percent of the vote, clinching the election.
The JEC postponed the SA elections twice, first in February to accommodate the late appointment of JEC members, which came about two months behind schedule. Last month, the JEC pushed back the elections by a week to Thursday and Friday after disqualifying three candidates, including incumbent SA President Christian Zidouemba.
The JEC disqualified Zidouemba after they ruled he impersonated other candidates and wrongfully collected signatures to appear on the ballot for his reelection campaign. Zidouemba appealed the JEC ruling to the Student Court but later withdrew his case, saying he was no longer running for reelection.
Senate candidate Aidan Spencer and presidential candidate Mohamed Redzuan Bin Mohamed Raffe also withdrew their suits after reaching out-of-court settlements with the JEC. Neither Spencer nor Raffe won their respective elections.
A total of 59.09 percent of voters approved the constitutional referendum, which clarifies language in the SA constitution and prevents the executive cabinet from removing the president, which the cabinet attempted to do last summer.
JEC members Fatima Konte and Michael Ubis said the JEC will certify the results of the election Monday.
Grace Chinowsky, Nikki Ghaemi, Jennifer Igbonoba, Caitlin Kitson, Max Porter, Rory Quealy, Fiona Riley and Tara Suter contributed reporting.
