Update: Vote totals for all 2010-2011 SGA races are included at the bottom of the story.
Three hours after run-off voting concluded at 8 a.m. Thursday SGA announced junior Daelan Blankfein would be SGA president for the 2010 to 2011 school year. Blankfein is currently SGA’s vice president of finance.
No candidate received a majority in last week’s election leaving the top two vote-getters— Blankfein and junior class Senator Will Goleman— to compete in a 24-hour run-off. Students voted through unique links sent to all current students although paper ballots were available if students ran into problems.
Blankfein said his first day as SGA president-elect has been a surreal experience.”I’ve just been going around all day— there’s so much to do but it’s been amazing he said. Somebody pinch me you know?”He said his first priority is fulfilling his remaining duties as vice president of finance but that he plans to meet with current SGA President Greg Lee to go over changes for next year and emulate the success of this year’s executive board. “I would attribute most of the success to everybody that I work with this year he said. Greg and Kamron [King vice president of administration] and Adrianne [Fore executive vice president] have been more than a blessing to work with. They are some of my best friends and together we’ve seen some awesome things happen.”Those accomplishments include bringing Jamba Juice and La Brea Bakery to campus and substantially increasing the feeling of community on campus Blankfein said.The three other members of next year’s executive board— Executive Vice President Andy Olson Vice President of Administration Mimi Rothfus and Vice President of Finance Finance Travis Hunter— were elected last week. Although the three ran with Goleman urging voters to choose the “Fantastic Four Blankfein said he is excited to work with both the class presidents and the members of the executive board.They’re all good friends of mine he said, pointing out that he has known Hunter since freshman year and has worked closely with Rothfus, who is currently sophomore class senator. They’re all close to me; I’ve known them a long time.”Blankfein ran on three main issues.First he aimed to implement a graduated Convocation scale. Freshmen would still required to attend 14 Convocation events but sophomores would need only 12 attendance credits juniors 10 and seniors only eight. “I’ve had a lot of students come to me with their concerns about Convo and it would take away a lot of concerns that people have he said.
For several weeks, Blankfein has been speaking with some of the many administrators who are involved in the decision. He said administrators have not given their specific thoughts, but said they were open to discussions.
I’m not going to say that yes it’s happening next year Blankfein said. But I think that it’s really positive that the administration is ready and willing to listen and they’ve been really good.”
The second goal is to convince local businesses to accept Waves points like those used at the Caf an idea he got when he attended Pepperdine’s Washington D.C. internship program and saw the success George Washington University had with a similar program.
“It’s extremely effective there he said. In a smaller town like Malibu that could really help students out.”
His third goal is related.
“I’ll also work on fairer prices in the cafeteria he said. It’s something Adrianne Fore and I have been working all year. … The Caf prices have dropped a lot over time.”
Blankfein said his current position involves less direct interaction with students because his primary responsibility is ensuring fiscal responsibility. He looks forward to fulfilling his new role however.
“I would like to thank [students] for all their support he said. Without them I would not be their president. To go further with that I’m going to do everything I can to make sure those goals that I ran on are enacted.”
The results were announced at 11 a.m. in a school-wide e-mail by SGA adviser Jarret Fisher.
Elections for class senators and freshman class president will take place in the fall.
Election statistics provided by Vice President of Administration Kamron King.
The number of votes for each candidate follows his or her name.
It is a combination of online votes and paper ballots with online voting constituting more than 95 percent of the votes for most races. The exception was the race for junior class president in which 22 percent of voters turned in paper ballots. That is because second-year students with enough units to vote as juniors were given paper ballots to vote with the sophomores and students in the Washington DC and Shanghai programs were given paper ballots according to King.
King said most write-in candidates were clearly meant as jokes such as Mickey Mouse Wolfman and Bill Nye.
To win a race outright a candidate needed to earn a majority– 50 percent plus one.
The winner of each contest is in bold print.
Run-off (SGA President):
Daelan Blankfein: 555 (54 percent)
Will Goleman: 528
Total: 1028 votes
General election
SGA President
Daelan Blankfein: 441 (36 percent; advanced to run-off)
Will Goleman: 379 (31 percent; advanced to run-off)
Taylor Thompson: 228
Louis Boney: 152
Write-in: 24
Total: 1224
Executive Vice President
Andy Olson: 889 (80 percent)
Khail Parris 182
Write-in: 31
Total: 1102
Administrative Vice President (unopposed)
Mimi Rothfus 1021 (94 percent)
Write-in: 65
Total: 1086
Vice President of Finance (unopposed)
Travis Hunter 1038 (95 percent)
Write-in: 57
Total: 1095
Senior Class President
Brendan Fereday 129 (50.6 percent)
Patrick Doyle 112
Write-in: 14
Total 255
Junior class president
Jason Yoo 173 (52 percent)
Rachel O’Connor 151
Write-in: 7
Total: 331
Sophomore class president
Jessica Thompson 151 (54 percent)
Daniel Beresford 117
Write-in: 12
Total: 280