Mississippi State University students will elect the next Student Association treasurer today in a runoff election, following the general election held Feb. 19. Candidates Will Moon, Ross Weems and Sean Galligan received 45, 30 and 25 percent of the vote, respectively.
Moon and Weems, both juniors, are competing for the position as neither of them received the majority of the votes.
SA bylaws state that for candidates to be elected, they must receive at least 50 percent of the vote, and if not, the top two vote-getters will compete in a runoff.
Because of the original number of candidates, Moon said he thought the race could end in a runoff.
“If you think of it, when you have three people running and you have to have the majority vote, it’s hard to [win the majority]. It definitely was in the back of my mind,” Moon said.
Being in the runoff is an exciting opportunity, Weems said.
“I’m pretty excited. It’s a great honor to just be in the runoff,” he said. “I was up against two quality opponents, and I’m looking forward to the challenge. I still have an opportunity to win.”
Because of the runoff, the candidates are allowed to use $150 more than the $700 spending limit for their campaigns, according to an SA bylaw.
Moon said some left over materials can be used from after the general election.
“I did have some stuff left over, and if need be I can dig a little deeper and get a little more material,” he said.
The extra money probably won’t be needed for his campaign, Weems said.
“Of course it’s going to cost more to extend a campaign,” he said. “I was well below the $700. I tried to budget myself and spend where I needed.”
The time leading up to the runoff, Weems said, was an opportunity to extend his campaign.
“I’ve [gotten] to campaign some more and get my name out there. We’re going to get more folks out campaigning with me,” he said. We’ll be passing out flyers, passing more information and letting everybody know more about my experience, knowledge on campus and my platform.”
Moon said he didn’t have any different plans for approaching the runoff.
“I put my whole heart and effort into the general election, I’m going to do the exact same effort with the runoff,” he said. “I’m not looking at it as any less important; this [election] is my top priority.”
Both candidates said they believe there might be a smaller turnout than last week’s of more than 2,000 students, but said they encouraged students to come to the polls.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m., said SA election commissioner Phillip Bass, and will be conducted in the Mitchell Memorial Library and on the second floor of the Colvard Student Union.
The polls were moved from the Dawg House to outside the Union auditoriums because of a scheduling conflict.
“Because of the computer technical problems [Feb. 19], plus the candidates wishes, everyone involved wanted to do it on Tuesday where there was already a conflict with the scheduling of the Dawg House, somebody already had that day, so we just moved it upstairs,” Bass said.
The voter turnout for runoff elections is unpredictable, Bass said, but he expects it will be better than if the election had been held last Thursday.
“I think it’ll go well,” Bass said. “With it being the treasurer’s race and there being one race going on, it’ll be a lot more relaxed. There’ll be less computers in each spot just because we don’t expect the turnout we had in the [general election].