Josh Green '00 emerged as the landslide winner in the race for Student Assembly president last night, gathering 53.9 percent of the votes, more than three times as many as his nearest competitor. But voter turnout -- with just 1,259 votes cast -- was the lowest since 1989.
Case Dorkey '99 was elected to the Assembly vice presidency by an even wider margin, with 774 votes, or 61.4 percent.
Green, who brought in 679 votes, said he was "excited as can be" by the results. "Tonight's an exciting night for me, but next year will be an exciting night for the student body," he said.
Green said he wants to begin his tenure by completing the Assembly's Visions project: "First things first, we want to learn as much as we can from the 800 student submissions."
He also said that working with the new administration will be a big part of next year's Assembly.
President-elect James Wright met with candidates at a reception in Collis Common Ground last night. He said he was confident in Green's abilities. "I'm sure he'll do fine. He has put a lot of energy already into the Visions project."
Dorkey said he was not surprised by the results and said he already has plans for next year. "I want to focus on increasing membership. Its a big part of the Assembly."
The second and third place finishers in the president's race were only one percentage point apart, but both were far behind Green. Daniel Rygorsky '99 received 16.2 percent of the vote and 15 percent went to Dan Powell '00.
Green received 679 votes compared to Rygorsky's 205 and Powell's 189. Dorkey garnered 774 votes, 522 more than the 252 votes for Rob Auten '00.
In an interview with The Dartmouth last night, Rygorsky said he wished he could have been on campus to campaign more. He said he thinks next year's Assembly will be similar to the current administration under President Frode Eilertsen '99, which disappointed him.
Former Assembly vice-president Nahoko Kawakyu '99, who was the first ever to win the position as a write-in candidate, said she was happier for Dorkey than she was for herself last year, and said she has hopes for cooperation between Green and Dorkey.
"I know Josh Green and Case will work as a team," she said. "Frode and I didn't get along."
Kawakyu resigned as vice president during Winter term.
This year's elections occurred after a campaign period shortened to only one week with only two debates. The Class of 2001 cast approximately one third of the total votes.
In a pre-election poll conducted by The Dartmouth over the weekend, Green led with 52 percent of the votes, followed by Powell and Rygorsky with 15 and 14 percent respectively. Dorkey had 62 percent of the votes at that time.
Green said he was disappointed with the low turnout, but said he does not think it will affect his ability to lead the Assembly. "I think the student body will judge me by what happens next year, not what happened in these elections."
While many members of the Assembly said they did not think the shortened campaign period had any effect on the voter turnout, Director of Student Activities Mark Hoffman, who chairs the Election Advisory Committee, said he felt the fewer days to campaign did have an effect.
"I think one of the reasons there was such a low turnout was because we shortened the voting period by about six days. We also could have done a lot better with advertising the election," Hoffman said.
Rygorsky said one way he thinks voter interest could be increased is by changing the focus of the Assembly, a theme he used in his platform. "I think one way to make students more interested is to make it more student-service oriented."
Powell and Auten, unofficial Jack-O-Lantern humor-magazine running mates, said just because they did not win, it does not mean they will not push their issues. "Since we have never run before, it wasn't surprising" to lose, Powell said.
Rex Morey '99 was re-elected Class of 1999 Council president, and Adrienne Wilson '99 was elected vice president, both by wide margins.
Class of 2000 Council vice president Paul Holzer '00 was elected the new president of his class council. The new vice president will be John Phinney '00, who won the race by only six votes. Phinney received 119 votes compared with 113 votes for Kelly Heaps '00.
Jonathan Potter '01 defeated the sitting class president, Amar Dhand, to become the new president of the Class of 2001 Council. Potter received 222 votes, 54 more than Dhand.
Sena Ku '01, with 110 votes, captured the 2001 vice presidency by only six votes, beating Eric Etu '01 who received 104 votes.
The six newly elected members of the Committee on Standards are: Brian Feldman '00, Bruce Kennedy '00, Rex Morey '99, Noah Phillips '00, Jonah Sonnenborn '99 and Ezekiel Webber '00.
The 20 juniors-to-be who were elected members of the Green Key Society are: Laura Adams, Sara Becker, Lisa Bianchi, Eric Buchman, Spencer Copland, David Dexter, Rebecca Hazard, Kelly Heaps, Adi Herzberg, Leigh Johnson, Bruce Kennedy, Anne Kneedler, Gretchen Mather, Hoi Ning Ngai, Michael Pyle, Edward Rice, Janelle Ruley, Rebecca Udler, Sunil Verma and Ezekiel Webber.
Members of the Class of 1999 elected to next year's Assembly are: Luke Hart, Scott Jacobs, Alex Kline, Tony Perry, Jonah Sonnenborn, Beth Westman and Mark Woodward. Dorkey also received the necessary number of votes , but he was disqualified because of his election as Assembly vice president.
Members of the Class of 2000 elected to next year's Assembly are: Matthew Benedetto, Conor Dugan, David Gacioch, David Parker, Mintcho Petkov, Dan Powell and Alexandra Yates. Due to a tie for the last available position, the Assembly will decide between Rob Auten and Brian Feldman for that seat.
Members of the Class of 2001 elected to next year's Assembly are: Edward Bialas, Greg Chittim, Amanda Green, Margaret Keuker, Sena Ku, Brian Landry-Wilson, Jorge Miranda and Collin O'Mara.
