Associated Students Inc. announced student government election results Thursday and revealed that runoff elections will take place for the president and vice president positions between April 9 and 11.
ASI President John Haberstroh and presidential candidate Sean Zent will participate in the runoff along with current Vice President Jonathon Bolin and vice presidential candidate Deshe Gully. Students will be able to vote for the candidates during the runoff period.
Haberstroh received 3,148 votes, or 48.52 percent of the votes, while Zent received 1,849 votes, or 28.1 percent, according to the 2013 Associated Students General Election Results. For the vice presidential race, Bolin received 2,814 votes, or 43.37 percent, and Gully received 1,187 votes, or 18.29 percent.
Referendum #1, concerning the bylaw reform, passed with 70 percent approval. Referendum #2 also passed with 64 percent of the vote, meaning ASI will recommend to Cal State Long Beach President F. King Alexander that CSULB should be a smoke-free campus.
Haberstroh said that he was not surprised by the runoff results.
“Going into this, I knew there was going to be a runoff,” he said. “I’m pleased with how it turned out, and I think the students have spoken.”
According to the election results, 6,488 CSULB students voted in the election, a 33.2 percent increase from the 2012 election. The voter turnout, which was the highest in ASI history, consisted of 19.5 percent of the student body. The national average of student voters is 10 percent.
Students, like senior math major Leonardo Palomera, said that they took interest in the voter turnout.
“I knew that [a runoff] was going to happen this year,” Palomera said. “The thing I was more interested in was how many more students actually voted.”
Melanie Hawe, winner of the Academic Senator position, said she looks forward to the runoffs.
“I’m really surprised by the executive race,” Hawe said. “I can’t wait to see all the stuff [the candidates] are going to pull out after spring break.”
Zent said he was happy about the results even though his running mate, ASI vice presidential candidate Larry Toney, will not be included in the runoffs.
“It feels good. I’m glad that everybody came out and actually voted,” Zent said. “I really [want] to thank [Toney] because he worked so hard.”
Agatha Gucyski, who won the treasurer position, said she looks forward to helping support Gully in the vice presidential candidate runoff.
“To actually have [the title of treasurer] now and be able to serve the students on a bigger scale, I’m so happy,” Gucyski said. “I think Deshe [Gully] is the perfect vice presidential candidate … I’m going to help push him so he can get elected.”
Even though presidential candidate and ASI Chief of Staff Jorge Soriano did not get included in the runoffs, he said that he enjoyed participating in the campaigning process.
“I worked hard, and hopefully I gave the other candidates some things to think about,” Soriano said. “At a time like this when we’re going into a new transition with a new president and budget cuts, hopefully [the candidates] can take some time to focus on the actual issues.”
