News
In a stunning conclusion to the most hotly-contested Student Assembly election in recent memory, Julia Hildreth '05 defeated Ralph Davies '05 Wednesday by a single vote to become next year's student body president.
Hildreth, whose campaign came under scrutiny after a hacker allegedly sent a mass BlitzMail message to members of the Class of 2004 from one of her supporter's accounts, won 778 votes to Davies' 777 votes.
Jim Baehr '05, whose highly-visible campaign included an elaborate web site and self-described "flash," trailed behind with 512 votes, while Dave Wolkoff '05 garnered 467 votes.
Mike Valmonte '06 came away with 110 votes.
The voter turnout of 2,668 students was the highest ever for Assembly elections and represented an increase of more than 1,000 from 2003.
Elections Planning and Advisory Committee co-chair Stephanie Long '04 attributed the increase in turnout to "the nature and number of qualified candidates running for the position."
Hildreth concurred, saying, "I'm really grateful that there was such great voter turnout because it's obvious that all the candidates were really qualified, and I'm looking forward to refocusing on SA and accomplishing things rather than worrying about the election."
Davies declined to immediately comment.
"I'm very impressed with all the campaigns, but now that's its over, we should all get behind Julia, because she will do a great job," current student body president Janos Marton '04 said.
In a last-minute move, Marton, who defeated Brett Theisen '04 by a landslide 73.6 percent of the vote, the largest margin in more than a decade, endorsed Hildreth in Tuesday's issue of The Dartmouth.
In protest of EPAC's handling of campaign violations and other election protocol, Hildreth did not attend a candidate reception, held in Tindle Lounge late Wednesday evening after the results of the election were announced at 9:21 p.m., 21 minutes after their projected release via BlitzMail.
"I was disappointed in the process of decision-making and appeals consideration within the Elections Planning Committee," Hildreth said.
Baehr was the sole presidential candidate who attended the candidate reception.
"I congratulate my opponents for a hard-fought contest.
