Wharton freshman Keith Williams is prepared to take the reigns of his class board after beating his biggest competitor, Wharton freshman Andrew Dudum, by a margin of only 19 votes.
Dudum, along with vice presidential candidate and College freshman Nick Catero, were charged with campaigning too early via Facebook ads, but both charges were dropped after Nominations and Elections Committee deliberations.
The number of campaign violations filed this year dropped from last year's 18 to four, but the NEC still spent three hours deliberating after hearing charges and defenses from the candidates involved.
The two other violation charges were brought by College freshman and newly elected class treasurer Mohamed Shahin.
Shahin filed two separate charges against Class Board candidates Engineering freshmen Sugyan Lohia and Vashisht Garg, claiming that they had ripped down many of his campaign posters in and around Hill College House.
"They threatened me at my dorm last night . and asked me to drop the charges," Shahin said during the NEC Fair Practices Code hearing in Logan Hall.
Although Shahin's charges were dropped after NEC deliberations, Lohia and Garg were forced to defend themselves.
"From the bottom of my heart, I'm not at all power-hungry to stoop down so low as to vandalize my opponent's posters," Lohia said during the hearing.
Shahin, one of the three candidates for treasurer, beat his closest competitor, College freshman Ellen Huynh, by a mere margin of eight votes.
College freshman Mark Peter Pan received the highest number of votes among those running for a seat on the Undergraduate Assembly, automatically earning a spot on the highly influential University Council, a group of administrators and student leaders that deals with University issues.
College senior and UA Chairman Jason Karsh said that Pan having this UC seat makes him "one of the most influential freshmen on campus."
The seven other UA seats went to College freshmen Matt Amalfitano, Albert Pak, Adam Bloch, Leila Decker and Grant Dubler, along with Wharton freshmen Dong Chen and Jay Rodrigues.
In a final e-mail sent to candidates and winners, Elections chairwoman and College senior Colleen Donovan reported an unusually high 67.1 percent voter turnout for this election.
Donovan also congratulated all the candidates and winners on a "tremendous elections period," asking them to continue motivating students to be interested in student government and to "keep the spirit alive."
