It's Jones by a hair

Jasmin Jones knew it was close. The Board of Elections had just announced that only 249 votes separated the winner and loser in the student body president race.

So when she found out she had come back from a huge deficit in last week's election to win the presidency in a runoff Jones and her campaign staff jumped up in an explosion of cheers.

Jones received 51.3 percent of the record 9513 votes cast — an unprecedented turnout.

Her opponent Thomas Edwards earned 48.7 percent.

Ryan Morgan chairman of the Board of Elections" expressed the significance of such a large voter turnout for the next president's upcoming work.

""Whoever wins will have an incredible mandate to get done what the students want"" Morgan said before the results were announced.

Jones' victory comes a week after she received only about half as many votes as Edwards in the general election. He received 41 percent of the 8,736 total votes cast. Jones received 21 percent.

Jones now must assemble her cabinet, which includes the vice president, treasurer and committee chairmen. They will take office April 7.

Acknowledging last week that she would have to put in another long week of work, Jones also admitted that she was just happy to be in the runoff.

I think we were out there more" longer and later Jones said Tuesday when asked about her additional campaigning efforts throughout the last week.

She said she felt it was her staff's attitude that was a major factor in her victory.

We stayed positive" she said. We just encouraged students to get out there and vote. It didn't matter for who — just vote.""

Over the past week" she was a staple in the Pit. She and her staff wore their trademark neon visors and spawned many an impromptu dance battle.

While she said her campaign team put in a lot of work they certainly were not alone in their efforts.

Jones garnered the unified support of all four of last week's defeated candidates — Ron Bilbao Michael Betts" Ashley Klein and Matt Wohlford — after they held a joint strategy meeting Saturday.

""I feel like their support was a large portion of our success"" Jones said. I am overwhelmed with gratitude.""

In multiple e-mails sent out to all students who voted in last week's election" the quartet encouraged their original followers to vote for Jones the second time around.

They cited her openness to accept their platform points as an example of her ability to collaborate well with others" a trait they all agreed would be important for the next student body president to have.

""Honest to God" I can't believe that actually worked. I can't believe we actually pulled it off" Bilbao said.

She took down the machine. She took down the Terminator. It's the David versus Goliath.""

Edwards was visibly shaken by the results but received a standing ovation from his campaign workers.

""Go finish my physics lab for tomorrow"" Edwards answered after the announcement, when asked what he intended to do next.

He said the results did not change his feelings about his campaign.

I really think that we went into this thinking that we did everything that we could"" Edwards said.


Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.