Minutes before Student Government Association election results were announced Tuesday night, members of the U.N.I.T.E.D. Initiative executive slate were still seeking last minute votes to help them win the closest executive slate race in 10 years.
"I know this is a really asinine question, but is there anybody who hasn't voted yet?" vice presidential candidate Jamie Manuel asked a throng of supporters in the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house 20 minutes before results were announced.
Presidential candidate Betsy Mills stared blankly ahead while waiting on her cell phone for election results as the three other slate members huddled together silently.
"We did it," Mills said calmly to a crowd of supporters who erupted with cheers and congratulatory hugs.
U.N.I.T.E.D. Initiative won the election with 2,166 votes, 54 percent of the total vote. A total of 4,034 students voted in the election, which is the second-highest voter turnout in 10 years. Vote Bare, the opposing slate, had 1,868 votes.
The slate includes president-elect Mills, vice-president-elect Manuel, secretary-elect Jessica Tindal and treasurer-elect Zac Davis.
"It's amazing," Mills said. "Everyone's crying. Everyone who's supported us is right here. I'm just so dazed right now. We haven't slept for days."
U.N.I.T.E.D. Initiative's inauguration will be March 21 in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center Cardinal Hall. The slate will meet with the Vote Bare members and the current SGA President Asher Lisec before then to discuss changes to be made, Manuel said.
U.N.I.T.E.D. Initiative wants to work with the Vote Bare slate to include its members in SGA and university government, Manuel said.
U.N.I.T.E.D. Initiative intends to finish plans the current executives have begun, such as the news ticker in the Atrium, Mills said.
"I am very confident the SGA is moving in the direction it needs to," Lisec said. "I'm confident the slate will uphold its mission to the voters of SGA."
Other slate objectives include adding a brand-name restaurant chain to the Student Center and placing a left-turn arrow at the stop light at McKinley and Riverside avenues.
"I've never worked this hard in my life," Tindal said. "We're doing what the students want with all the motivation and drive we had during the campaign."
A major strategy for U.N.I.T.E.D. Initiative's campaign was using Facebook to reach out to students, Manuel said. The slate also talked to students at the Scramble Light and spoke to Ball State organizations, he said.
The slate focused its campaign on the slogan "It starts with U," Manuel said. During voting, slate members hung a sign with a large cardboard "U" on the Scramble Light to spread the message, he said.
"I think we did the best campaign that we could possibly do," Davis said.
The slate received financial and emotional support from Chi Omega sorority, friends, family and Phi Gamma Delta, which Manuel and Davis are both members of, Manuel said.
"I'm thrilled to death," Betsy's mother Sally Mills said. "She's going to be a really good president. She's been heading in this direction since she was a kid."
One Phi Gamma Delta member Michael Grembowicz showed up to the rally wearing a black Speedo and red body paint with "The U" painted on his chest so he could support the slate right to the very end.
"I usually do this for football games," he said. "Everybody kept pushing me to go with the Speedo and painted body thing. I didn't do this on campus. It's far too cold. Maybe if the elections were in April."
The slate will present itself to SGA today, Lisec said. They will also meet with administrators who will help with their transition into office, she said.
"We're going to make the first 100 days of office spectacular," Manuel said. "DWYSYWD - Do what you say you will do. That's what it is all about. It wasn't an empty promise."
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