The room was packed full with excited and tense students as Jay Buller and Allen Richey were announced as the two Student Government presidential candidates in next week’s runoff.
A room full of potential candidates and campaign supporters sat on the edge of their seats for an hour and a half waiting for the Election Board to arrive with the official results and another 30 minutes for Elections Commissioner Zach Howser to read off the results of the other elections.
As Howser read the results of the presidential and vice presidential race, the room erupted in cheers, shouts and tears.
“Unbelievable,” said Buller’s vice presidential running mate Robert Lay. “Words can’t describe how pleased we are, but we still have more to do.”
Buller and Lay, who received 965 total votes, will compete against Richey and Jason Wesley, who received 1,108 total votes, in a runoff Wednesday.
      “We’re pretty pleased,” Richey said. “We put in a lot of hard work, and it paid off. We wanted to get out the issues, and we did.”
Richey said he is looking forward to a “good runoff.”
Buller said they are proud of the candidates on their ticket who were either elected or in a runoff and said he and Lay are thankful for their hard work.
“We’re overjoyed,” Wesley said. “I don’t know how to put it into words. This says the voters paid attention to the issues.”
The two pairs of running mates who did not make the runoffs, Travis Leblanc and J. Ben Edmonds and Kyle Wilkinson and Danny Rockwell, were disappointed but still congratulated the other candidates.
“It was definitely an experience well worth going through,” Rockwell said.
Rockwell added he and Wilkinson will continue to support the candidates who ran on their ticket and are competing in a runoff, but they are not yet sure which presidential candidate they will support in the runoff.
Leblanc said he and Edmonds were shocked but wished luck to the remaining candidates.
Another result receiving an emotional reaction was the referendum to increase the Union fee, which passed by about 600 votes.
When Howser read the results, Amanda Sadat, Union Programming Council president, excitedly embraced several of her colleagues, including Union director Shirley Plakidas.
“I am so excited and pleased that students cared enough to leave a legacy for the future,” said Sadat, with tears of joy in her eyes.
The Union fee increase will go into effect next fall, and Union administrators will soon meet with architects and University administrators to construct the official plans for renovation and expansion. Plakidas anticipates the project’s completion date to be spring 2008.
The results for other Universitywide elections are as follows:
Athletic Council — Runoff
Michael Clayton: 54.10 percentScott Levy: 45.90 percent
Clayton and Levy are in a runoff because a third candidate for athletic council, Mark Higgins, withdrew from the race before elections, but his name remained on the ballot. Higgins earned about 400 votes, enough to swing the election. Therefore, though Clayton earned more than 50 percent of the vote, the two candidates must compete in the runoff election.
Union Governing Board — RunoffKate Darbonne: 40.68 percentMichael Schwartzenburg: 35.42 percent
University Court Justice (2 seats) — RunoffCullen Caballero: 20.96 percentAdria DeLaune: 18.91 percentCynthia May: 21.07 percentKatherine Nolen: 23.98 percentFor complete election results, click here.