It was a 1-2-3 victory for Joel Newby.
Newby, a first-year graduate student studying political science, was elected as next year’s Graduate Student Senate president with 123 votes.
With a total of 293 ballots cast, Team Renew’s presidential candidate will replace Tynita White in the 2013–14 academic year once GSS’s Board of Elections finalizes the results.
This was the first time in three years that the GSS election pitted multiple parties against each other.
Newby will be joined on the executive board by fellow members of Team Renew, Ed Gaither and Jessica Furgerson, who will serve as vice president for Administration and Finance and vice president for Communication, respectively. Gaither received 121 votes and Furgerson received 133. Team Renew’s final executive candidate, Robert Storm, obtained 118 votes but in the end was beat out by VISION’s Liz Volpe for the position of vice president for Committees and Legislative Affairs by just three votes.
“I am more than happy to work with VISION’s candidate,” Newby said. “I am just ready for next year, and we are going to start as soon as possible.”
Mohamad Al-Issa, the independent presidential candidate, trailed slightly behind Newby, garnering 105 votes. The third presidential hopeful, VISION’s W. Alex Wesaw, netted 51 votes.
Wesaw expressed disappointment about the election results but voiced his excitement for Volpe and the voter turnout.
“I’m sure (Volpe) will fight for the VISION (platform), even though she’s got a couple people … from the other ticket (on GSS),” Wesaw said. “I’m just happy to see that more graduate students got out to vote this year.”
Last year, 149 graduate students voted for PROUD, the uncontested party that put White into office.
Al-Issa said he hopes some of the ideas from his platform will be implemented into GSS next year despite his loss.
“I (will) definitely try to work with the president,” he said. “I actually sought (out) the candidates after the debate and said, ‘In case I (do not) win, I will be on your side and try to help out.’ ”
Rounding out VISION’s ticket were Jennifer Smolowitz and Andrea Harless, who ran for vice president for Administration and Finance and vice president for Communication, respectively. Smolowitz gathered 115 votes, while her fellow VISION party member received 106.
Online voting for the election ran smoothly, said Katie Mitchell, GSS board of elections chair.
However, only about 7 percent of the graduate student population voted — about 4,200 are eligible to vote.
“I thought the election went extremely well, and I’m incredibly proud of each candidate who campaigned, as the results were so close,” Mitchell said. “I am excited to see an executive board with both Team Renew and VISION party members, so that GSS might evaluate tough questions from a variety of perspectives.”
— Samuel Howard and Alexander Muehlbach contributed to this article.
oh271711@ohiou.edu
