After weeks of campaigning, the final results of the Associated Students of the University of Arizona elections were announced Thursday evening.
Morgan Abraham, a current ASUA senator, received 58.3 percent of the votes and was announced as the new ASUA president-elect. His opponent Dylan Duniho got 40.8 percent of the votes.
The Ventana room of the Student Union Memorial Center was packed with students and candidates alike, all bustling with excitement and anticipation.
The results for the senate race were first to be announced, followed by the results for the administrative and executive vice presidential races. The presidential results were announced last.
Coming in first place for ASUA senator was Elena Gold, with a total of 1,810 votes. Alex Barbee took second place with 1,491 votes.
“Honestly, I thought I was going to lose; I’m not going to lie,” Barbee said. “I just want to do my … big platform. All I wanna do is implement it … I’m so excited.”
Christopher Chavez was also elected to the senate with a total of 1,454 votes.
“I feel awesome. Like, I don’t even know how to explain it,” Chavez said. “I’m ready to serve the students; I’m ready to put in all the work to get my platforms to actually be a reality … in the next year.”
As each name was announced, the room filled with cheering and applause. Other elected senators included Zac Miller, Tate Arnold, Grant Suman, Christopher Seffren, Elana Roeder, Dakota Staren and Diego Alvarez.
Following the announcement of the results of the senatorial race, Danielle Novelly, a current ASUA senator, was announced as the executive vice president-elect. Novelly said she began bawling immediately when she heard she had won.
“I’m just freaking out,” Novelly said. “I was so nervous … It was so close.”
Novelly received a total of 421 votes, 37 of which were close spelling.
Amanda Lester ran unopposed for administrative vice presidential elect and received 1,880 votes.
After much anticipation, Morgan Abraham was announced as the president-elect. Following the news, he felt numb, he said.
“It’s a pretty crazy feeling right now,” Abraham said. “I’ve been doing this for, I feel, like a month and a half right now, and minimal sleep, minimal meals, you know. I haven’t really been eating, so I’m just glad that it’s over.”
Abraham added that he couldn’t have asked for a better campaign team and supporters and that he could not be happier with the outcome.
“I ran off of a message of, you know, changing ASUA and changing the way ASUA is viewed by people, and that’s what I hope my legacy is,” he said.
Abraham said he hopes to make everyone who voted for him proud and to prove to everyone wrong who didn’t vote for him.
Some students who attended the election results said they were happy overall with the results.
“I’m extremely pleased with the presidential elections,” said Kayleigh Michod, a freshman studying pre-medicine and biology. “I think that it’s going to be a great year next year.”
A total of 4,320 votes were cast for the election, an increase from the 3,986 votes cast in 2012.
“Definitely having the three propositions on the ballot increased voter turnout, and we had three very active student groups working really hard to get their needs out and I think that’s really good because they helped get the word about elections,” said Leo Oppenheimer, ASUA elections commissioner. “Further, I think that having a very competitive race for president and executive vice president definitely increased voter turnout. Obviously, we hope for more and more voter turnout in the future.”
Moving forward, the candidates will be sworn in by the ASUA Senate. Candidate expense reports have been submitted over the past few days, and now it’s mostly “administrative wrap-up,” according to Oppenheimer.
“It’s been a long time coming, and it’s been a very long couple of months,” said Katy Murray, the current ASUA president. “I think it’s going to be a really good incoming class, and I think it’s going to be a really good year next year for ASUA.”
