A celebratory roar echoed through Dodson Auditorium as Student Government elections culminated Wednesday with Cody Wells and Kathleen Bordelon winning the presidential and vice presidential runoff elections after David Jones and Kacey Brister were disqualified and also lost the majority vote.
Wells’ and Bordelon’s “Together LSU” ticket garnered 57.4 percent of the votes with 3,252 votes, and Jones’ and Brister’s “Defining Our Future” ticket won 42.6 percent of the votes with 2,413 votes. Together LSU was 1,124 votes ahead of Defining Our Future in last week’s general election.
Voter turnout was up 36.5 percent from last year’s runoff elections and surpassed the total general election voter turnout from last year, according to SG Commissioner of Elections Billy Wright. Wright said this year’s voter turnout exceeded 20 percent in both the general and runoff elections, though the runoff turnout was down from this year’s general election.
Jones and Brister were disqualified Tuesday night after Jones was caught sending “unsolicited” Facebook messages for campaigning purposes, according to Wright. Wright said the election board disqualified Jones after he sent messages to members of his non-campaign related Facebook group, which violates more than one section of the election code.
Jones and Brister said they knew they were disqualified but did not file an appeal because they “wanted the students’ voices to be heard.” Jones said he and Brister’s main objective throughout the election process was to preserve integrity, and they had more than 20 opportunities to file complaints during campaign season but did not because of their pact to preserve integrity.
“The votes reflect the decision of the students,” Jones said.
  Video: SG Election Results  
Wells said Together LSU’s common goal is to “leave the University in a better place.” He said his parents taught him to work hard and he “thanks God for every minute” of the election process.
Bordelon attributed Together LSU’s success to their “great support system” and said people were “bending over backward” to help them.
Wells said students can look forward to the winning candidates working together to “achieve everything promised to students.” Wells and Bordelon said their philosophy was “no regrets,” and they would not have done anything differently.
Wells and Bordelon said they are prepared to tackle budget cuts and plan to be at the Legislature “as much as possible” during the upcoming legislative session. Wells said he will stand behind current SG President J Hudson’s March to the Capitol.
Jones said he plans to serve in SG next year, while Brister said she is still weighing her options.
Brister said this was “one of the best experiences” of her life and she would not have changed anything.
Current SG Vice President Dani Borel said she is happy about the voter turnout. She also said she and Hudson are “laying a lot of ground work” to “get the ball rolling” for Wells and Bordelon’s administration.
Aaron Caffarel, who ran in this year’s elections under the “NOW” ticket but did not advance to the runoffs, said he expected Wells to win. Caffarel, who filed a complaint against Jones in which Jones was found not guilty by the University Court, said some of his NOW candidates were swayed to vote for Wells and Bordelon after being turned off by Jones’ e-mails he sent them after Caffarel’s loss, causing the court case.
Brooksie Bonvillain, SG Senate Speaker and 2010 presidential candidate, said she has mentored Wells, Jones and Caffarel for their past three years in Senate, and closely advised Wells and Caffarel throughout the election season.
“Leadership isn’t merely positional if you have the passion to make a difference,” Bonvillain said.
The margins of victory for several races were minimal and there were two ties in runoff election results, in which case the winner was determined by who won the most votes in the general election, according to Wright.
 
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Contact Andrea Gallo at [email protected]