So, what happened?

I'm still reeling from the flurry of events that transpired Wednesday night in the chaos of the election announcements. Due to a perfect storm of events the unthinkable has happened: a runoff election between the two tickets on the ballot for President and Vice President. How could this have happened?


As it turns out, what delayed the Election Commission for so long on Wednesday night is that there was an unusually high number of write-in votes, both for Senate races and the Presidential race. I was able to get a copy of the raw data for write-ins, and there were 55 total write-in votes. Some of the write-ins were "None" or "Lamp" and couple of past candidates, including Jordan & Kaleigh and Corey and Eric, and also a single vote for our very own Seth Tuttle and Matt Bohannon of the basketball team, who combined average 21.2 points per game.

However, there were two groups in particular who snagged a hefty majority of the write-ins. Austin Hansen and Jeff Hinton, along with Alex Stepanek and Joe Farrell  each received a hefty percentage of the write-ins. Alex is the President of the SigEp fraternity on campus and Joe, who's also a SigEp, received 15 votes  presumably from their brothers and friends. Austin and Jeff received 18 votes, probably stemming from the various postings around Campbell hall with #HansenHinton2015 on them. It's not clear in this case if the students above even knew this was happening.

All in all, the Commission decided to exclude write-in votes cast for people not eligible for the Presidency, namely enrolled students at UNI. As such, the total number of "other" votes was reduced from 55 to 40. With Jared and Tanner getting 606, 13 more votes than Katie and Renae's 593, these write-ins totaled 3.2% of the votes, barring Jared and Tanner from winning outright with only 48.9%.

It cannot be understated how much this impacts the current election. Campaigns are exhausting, and I can't imagine how the candidates felt about hearing that there would be another week of campaigning. Voting will open again 7am Tuesday and run through 7pm Wednesday, and this time somebody has to win. With a margin of only 13, the two teams can't afford to lose momentum with voters between now and the next round of polling. Last time there was a runoff it was decided by 14 votes, when Tom and Blake increased their vote total from the first round by almost 150 votes.

If I'm Katie and Renae, I wouldn't be able to thank Austin, Jeff, Alex and Joe enough. This basically gives them another shot at winning, having 'lost' the first round. On the other hand, I bet Jared and Tanner are furious, and for good reason. Having put their all into the last two weeks and getting more votes than their opponent, they still have to go through another round. Thanks to 40 students, the Presidential tickets will be tested on their endurance.

Looking at the margins, it's clear that this race has been much closer than I anticipated or suspected. I'll admit that I underestimated Jared and Tanner as NISG "outsiders" and their ability to get students to vote. It is clear that the traditional voting centers, the residence halls, have showed up to vote for their RHA leaders. It's also clear that nearly just as many people supported Katie and Renae. I literally have no idea what to expect next week.

In the meantime, the focus on the tickets and what they do with these last days will be more intense than ever. Tickets will have time to visit student orgs they couldn't fit on their schedule, and ramp up the intensity on their "get-out-the-vote" efforts. There's also the possibility that the ballots can be challenged. If they want, Jared and Tanner could ask the Commission to review the write-ins to eliminate more of the ballots. If the number of write-ins was reduced from 55 to 28, Jared and Tanner would have a majority of votes.

Let's see how each campaign reacted to the news:

From the Jared and Tanner Facebook page:

"The student body made a statement last night and they said they want‪#‎JaredandTanner2015‬ as their next Student Body President and Vice President! We were only a few votes shy of the victory, so we're going to need your help one more time next week during the runoff election on March 3rd and 4th to ensure the students get what they voted for!‪#‎OneMoreTime‬ ‪#‎NISGrunoff‬"

They also came out with a sweet graphic explaining the numbers regarding write-ins, which shows they have some good graphic designers in house - a good skill for an administration.

Kate and Renae's Page:

"Hey everyone, seeing as neither ticket got 50% of the vote last night, we have a run-off election! Voting will be next week, the 3rd and 4th of March. It's time to "take the next step," and we are grateful for your continued support!"

They also came out with a newer version of their campaign profile photo, urging voters to vote "Again!" on March 3rd and 4th.

In addition, this gives the tickets time to secure endorsements for their campaign. Typically, the Northern Iowan receives a few letters to the editor urging students to vote. In the past, people from the sitting NISG President to different student org leaders have published their support of a campaign. With another issue of the NI coming out Monday, tickets have more time to get endorsements in print, something neither ticket did last week.

Honestly, I hadn't thought that it was possible, or even likely, that we would see the election forced into a runoff this year. It just goes to show that especially in student government, every vote matters. I hope that we'll see an even higher voter turnout this round, rather than the historical results which sees less votes overall. By all means, tell your friends to get informed, apply for open Senate seats, and vote next week. Until then, keep your eyes and ears open for the next few days, and we'll see which team takes the most advantage of the extra time to campaign. Have a good weekend, and Go Panthers!