The Election Commission announced tonight that Pat Dowd (SFS ’09) and James Kelly (COL ’09) won the run-off election and will be the next GUSA President and Vice President.

After three rounds of instant run-off voting, Dowd received 1,304 of the 2,549 votes cast. Runner-up Kyle Williams (COL ’09) received 1,070. D.W. Cartier (COL ’09) and David Dietz (COL ’10) finished third and fourth, respectively.

In the meeting in which the results were announced, Dowd reached out to the other candidates and said he wanted them “to be part of what we’re doing.”

“Definitely the first thing we want to do is meet with the other candidates,” Dowd said after the meeting. “[We want to] sit down with them and make sure their voice is heard.”

The run-off election was called after the GUSA Senate voted to deny certification of the first election’s results, based on problems with the confusing ballot, improper application of instant run-off voting, and the correlation between alphabetical order on the ballot and the number of votes received in later rounds.

“Whoever wins can be said to have the clear voice of the student body behind them, and will be a stronger force for change on behalf of the student body because of it,” GUSA Speaker of the Senate Eden Schiffman wrote in an email earlier today. “The runoff included a more manageable ballot, IRV correctly applied, and even higher turnout than the original vote, and has been, from all indications so far, a complete success.”

All eight candidates agreed to a run-off between the top four, according to Election Commissioner Maura Cassidy (COL ’08). However, Sean Hayes (COL ’10), who placed fifth, and D.W. Cartier (COL ’09), who won the first election, later raised objections.

Photo by Juliana Brint, Associate News Editor

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• GUSA screwed up big time with this year’s election fiasco and the Editorial Board isn’t pleased. They also take a look back at the accomplishments of the Shaw/Appenfeller administration.
• Speaking of which, News has the scoop on when we’ll (finally) be getting those free newspapers promised so long ago.
• In the Voices section, Mike Stewart takes on Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason, in which she “calls out our nation’s population not only for its lack of general education, but also for its arrogant disdain for everything ‘elite.’” (My money’s on Mike.)
• It’s almost time to say goodbye to departing DPS Director Darryl Harrison. But first, Tim Fernholz sat down with Harrison to chat about his departure, the state of security at Georgetown and what his successor should know.
• Sara Carothers takes us inside the newest exhibit at the Hirshhorn, “The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality, and Moving Image; Part I: Dreams.”
• It’s not the NFL, but it’ll do. Georgetown quarterback Matt Bassuener and wide receiver Brent Craft are heading off to the AFL2, the minor-league version of the Arena Football League, Phil Perry reports.

I am exhausted from midterms so I’m going to sleep now to be ready for my 2:45 a.m. flight on Saturday morning. Have a nice spring break everyone, and see you in a week or so.

If you made it through the nine rounds of IRV voting in the first election, you probably noticed the Exit Poll GUSA tacked on to the end. GUSA Speaker of the Senate Eden Schiffman said the poll was an effort to figure out who was (and was not) participating in GUSA and what was most important to them.

The Freshman and Sophomore classes cast the most votes—31% of voters were Sophomores, 29% were Freshmen. Blame it on being jaded or simply smaller class sizes, the Junior class accounted for only 20% and the Seniors were a mere 12% (7% didn’t respond).

Voting was pretty estrogen-heavy, even if the field of candidates wasn’t. 49% of voters were female, 42% were male (9% didn’t respond).

The racial breakdown was a pretty accurate reflection of the University’s composition. The participation rates for minorities were slightly higher than their percentage of the student, body, but not significantly so. 67% of voters identified as White (non-Hispanic), 7% Hispanic, 8% African-American, 9% Asian, 7% Other and 12% did not respond. According to statistics on the University website, 6.4% of students are Hispanic, 6.7% are African-American and 8.7% are Asian.

The biggest determinant in who people voted for was face-to-face meetings (56% of voters checked that box), followed by candidates’ platforms (34%). Club and Paper Endorsements came in last, influencing a measly 13% of voters. So much for the power of the Fourth Estate…

Some took the free-response “What are you looking for in your candidates?” question as chance to engage the time-honored Georgetown past-time of GUSA-bashing—one response was “Inability to deal with simple problems and overall ineptitude”—but most answered pretty earnestly. Common themes were leadership ability, dedication to the job, charisma, enthusiasm, experience, honesty and the ability to represent students and communicate with administrators.

There was a split between those who wanted the president to address the school’s alcohol policy—“alcohol policy reform” was one of the most common phrases—and those who wanted to move past it, i.e. “Someone who seems to understand there is a world beyond the alcohol policy.”

It looks like the national presidential campaign trickled down into GUSA race a bit. One voter wanted someone with “the strength to lead in this post-9/11 world, while others were looking for “change I can believe,” “Someone who can bring change. Like Matt Appenfeller. Yes we can .. hope” or, to put it bluntly, “A president that is like Barack Obama.”

A few wanted a nominee who would channel past-presidents—“Ben Shaw Re-incarnated” or “twister 2.0, someone with a cool name.”

Here are a few of my other personal favorites:
“Attractiveness, Promiscuity, Drinking Habits, and Religion”
“Being a sweet bro and magical powers”
“Chicken, Bacon, Cheese, Onions, Peppers, Bread, Barack Obama”
“feathers and ability to count. Seriously. No, seriously.”
“Height, Hair and Optimism.”
“Someone who is chill and not a pinko, gay loving, anticatholic communist”
and, finally, whoever wrote “The Voice’s endorsement is key”