Students will have to wait until next Thursday to find out who the next Associated Students Inc. (ASI) president will be since no presidential candidate received 51 percent of the votes in this past week’s elections.
A run-off election will take place Tuesday and Wednesday to determine whether incumbent ASI President Shefali Mistry or candidate Mark Andrews will be the next president.
Matt Hubbard, Andrews’ campaign manager, said he was not shocked to find out Andrews and Mistry would be in a run-off race.
“I expected it,” Hubbard said.
“With four candidates, it’s hard to clinch 51 percent,” Andrews said, unfazed by the results.
“It feels good,” Andrews said. “We’ve got one more week.”
Mistry had a different approach. “I’m OK. I’m not surprised; just a little nervous but still optimistic,” she said.
This is the second year Mistry will be involved in a run-off vote for the ASI presidency. Students voted down a measure last year that would have eliminated the need for a separate run-off election.
Lucy Montano collected 56.3 percent of the votes to become the new vice president; Shelena McClinton received 53.5 percent of the votes to become the new treasurer.
“I’m really surprised to get it in one shot. I was expecting a run-off,” McClinton said.
The election drew 1,852 voters – 5.4 percent of the CSU Mentor’s enrollment count for Cal State Long Beach.
Several students around campus, however, were uninterested and therefore did not vote. Josh Dobbs, a political science major, was one of them.
“It’s school elections,” Dobbs said. “Who cares?”
Journalism major Marcus Bockman did not vote either.
“I wasn’t impressed with anyone at the debate,” Bockman said. “It doesn’t feel like they’re going to have an impact on the school.”
