After the results were announced and the cheers had died down, Lindsay Richardson said that what she was most looking forward to was getting a full night’s sleep Wednesday night.
After nearly three weeks of speaking at club meetings, tabling on Greene Street and laying out her campaign for hundreds of students, Richardson was elected student body president, with 66.5 percent of the vote. She was astounded.
“I’m shocked, to be honest with you, and really humbled,” she said. “I’m really thankful that the student body I guess believes in me.”
Richardson beat out third-year political science student Jameson Broggi, who received 16.5 percent of the vote, and third-year criminal justice student Chris Sumpter, who got 16.7 percent.
In the vice presidential race, third-year management science student Donnie Iorio narrowly defeated second-year economics student David Leggett, winning by just six votes.
Third-year business economics student Ryan Harman took the treasurer election, beating out Natalie Hageman, third-year business student and student senate finance committee chair. Hageman did not file to return to senate next year.
“They’re a great bunch. It’s going to be a cool dynamic,” Richardson said. “I’m really honored and excited, and I just can’t wait.”
Voter turnout made a slight increase this year, rising 1.5 percent to 4,610 votes, up from last year’s 4,555. Since the 2012 elections, turnout has increased 50.2 percent, according to Elections Commissioner William O’Shields.
And for the first time in Student Government history, there were no election violations filed during the campaign, O’Shields said.
“Candidates were very friendly toward one another,” O’Shields said. “They were working together in order to show how great Student Government really is, versus trying to get at each other.“
Two referendum votes were expected to appear on this year’s ballot, but they did not because of last week’s class cancellations. Both questions pertained to the student senate: one to allow for proxy senators and another to allow senators at large. The student senate needed to send the text of the referendums to The Daily Gamecock to be printed at least one week before the vote.
Sumpter had planned to also file for a senate seat in the College of Arts and Sciences as a fallback in case he was defeated in the presidential race. However, his name did not appear on the ballot.
“I filed for senate, and I completed the application like the commission instructed me to,” he said. “And they sent out a ballot that I did not get that was supposed to be verified.”
Sumpter said when he found out about the issue on election day, when he didn’t see his name on the ballot.
According to O’Shields, Sumpter did not properly file for both the senatorial and presidential races; instead, he only filed to run for president.
“Per the codes, you’re supposed to fill out two different filing forms for senate and exec, and he only filled out the filing form for exec,” O’Shields said. “We weren’t able to put him on the ballot.”
Leggett was also unsure of his future in SG after hearing the results.
“I will certainly continue in Student Government, but I haven’t figure out what role yet,” he said. “The decision to run this year was the decision to run this year and nothing more than that.”
But Richardson’s, Iorio’s and Harman’s paths are certain. They will be inaugurated on Mar. 19.
“I’m really excited about making some really sizable impacts on this campus,” Richardson said with tears in her eyes. “I can’t wait to step in the first day in the office.”