In the race for the Student Association’s executive council positions, Braxton Coombs was elected as SA president, and Blake Jeter won the attorney general position. A run-off next week will determine the next treasurer.Coombs defeated opponent Jeral Self with 65 percent of the vote. Jeter won SA attorney general with 61 percent of the vote.
Vice president-elect Braxton Stowe and secretary-elect Whitney Holliday ran unopposed.
Because neither earned more than 50 percent of the vote, a run-off election between Will Moon and Ross Weems to determine the next SA treasurer will take place Feb. 26.
The winners were announced Tuesday at 9 p.m. in front of the new Colvard Student Union, two hours after the polls closed.
The newly elected officers, including Coombs, will now begin their preparations to lead the SA, he said.
“I want to get this new exec motivated, make sure that we’re all on the same page, that we know each other’s ideas and make sure that we’re getting out there and beginning to get [things] accomplished right here on the front end,” Coombs said.
Maintaining the energy from his campaign, he said, was his focus going into his new position.
“I’ve been campaigning for this position for the last month,” Coombs said. “I can promise everyone that I’m going to be working a lot harder as president than campaigning for president.”
Unopposed vice presidential candidate Braxton Stowe said he’s ready to get to work in his new office.
“I feel that it’s time to work, time to work for the students, time to serve,” Stowe said. “It’s time to make some changes around here.”
Stowe said he is excited about working with the MSU administration as well as continuing the progress started by the current SA administration.
The new officers will formally take their new positions at the SA banquet on March 6.
Current SA President Jeremy Johnson said he is excited about the newly-elected SA executives.
“I feel great [about the election], regardless of who won tonight,” he said. “I knew that the next administration was going to have great leadership, and they’re going to do great things.”
SA elections commissioner Phillip Bass said the elections went well despite some technical difficulties at the beginning. As a result the polls remained open until 7 p.m.
“We had had a few technical difficulties [with the computers] in the beginning, but it was resolved in an appropriate amount of time and it was not an issue,” Bass said. “To cover our bases, we extended voting for an hour.”
The issues with the computers, Bass said, had no effect on the outcome of the elections.
More than 2,100 students participated in the election, Bass said, an increase of approximately 500 voters.
“[The candidates have] been campaigning for three weeks; a lot more people on campus realized the voting was happening,” Bass said. “The biggest way to get public relations about the election is the candidates themselves, and they did their job this year.”
Bass said polling places for the run-off for treasurer will again be in the Mitchell Memorial Library and the Union. Until then, the run-off candidates are allowed to continue campaigning, he said.