Neal Sales-Griffin beat Mark Crain in Thursday's runoff election for Associated Student Government president by only about 200 votes. Sales-Griffin received 1,498 votes, or 53.5 percent, to Crain's 1,301 votes, or 46.5 percent.
Despite picking up 555 new votes in Thursday's election, Crain could not overtake the margin between him and Sales-Griffin, who finished 17 percentage points ahead after the first round of voting Tuesday.
In the other runoff Thursday, McCormick junior Nate Perkins was elected student services vice president with 58.7 percent of the vote against Weinberg junior Hariharan 'Harry' Vijayaraghavan, who collected 41.3 percent. Perkins had not won a majority on Tuesday, forcing the runoff.
About 2,800 students voted in Thursday's presidential race, compared to about 3,200 in the first round of elections Tuesday, which placed Sales-Griffin, with 40,1 percent, and Crain, with 23.2 percent, in a runoff.
This year's presidential election featured the largest number of registered candidates, five, since 2005. Though neither ran as an 'insider' candidate, Sales-Griffin and Crain had the most experience working with ASG of the five. There was tension between the two campaigns; Sales-Griffin on Tuesday accused Crain's campaign of tearing down "NSG" flyers in Allison Hall. Crain received an endorsement Wednesday from outgoing ASG President Jonathan Webber, who had previously endorsed third-place finisher Scott Burton. His campaign made a strong push on campus until the polls closed, which Sales-Griffin campaign manager Benjamin Armstrong acknowledged.
"It was close all the way through today and it made us nervous," the Weinberg freshman said. "We thought that we had this thing dead and today was the first time we even doubted it."
After the results came in, a dejected Crain said he wished he was on "the other end" and felt he could have pulled off an upset with three more days and more face-to-face time with students.
2008 Woodie Awards
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a friend
posted 4/18/08 @ 9:36 AM CST
neal will take NU to the next level. "i guarantee it" -george forman
Another friend
posted 4/20/08 @ 12:00 AM CST
A popularity contest? If this ASG presidential was a high school popularity contest, Blake would have won. Neal won because the Northwestern student body does believe that he is the catalyst for the changes that ASG desperately needs. (Continued…)
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