Last one standing

Bringing a decisive finish to a student body election season embroiled in complaints and controversy, Mary Cooper emerged unscathed as the winner Friday with a sweeping 62 percent of the vote.

“I’m going to sleep less than I did during the campaign season,” Cooper said of her plans to serve students next year.

Before her April 5 inauguration, Cooper said she and her transition team will work to meet with administrators and current members of the executive branch to begin working for next year.

“Hogan and I will be spending an enormous amount of time together,” she said. “My first action will be learning as much as I can.”

She said she hopes to first work on expanding CCI printing to Greek housing and other off-campus locations, one of her main platform points.

Cooper was largely removed from the complaints and heated exchanges that arose once again Friday, when third-place finisher Rick Ingram publicly announced his endorsement of Cooper as opposed to Ian Lee, who garnered 38 percent of the runoff vote.

The endorsement came in response to an e-mail Lee sent to Ingram’s supporters, encouraging them to vote. Ingram responded by taking to Facebook at 11:37 a.m. to announce his endorsement, while campaign manager Billy Kluttz took to Twitter and harangued Lee for “fraudulent e-mails” that misled supporters.

Ingram said in the post that Lee, the student body secretary, engaged in “corrupt behavior” by sending e-mails to students who signed Ingram’s petition. In the e-mail, Lee cited the similarities of their platforms but later said he did not intend to suggest that Ingram had endorsed him.

Ingram contested Lee’s candidacy in December, arguing that the Student Code did not allow for Lee to campaign for student body president while serving as student body secretary.

“He tried to mislead students, and I wanted to show them how I felt,” Ingram said in an interview, adding that he also saw Cooper as the superior candidate.

Cooper said the endorsement was a welcome surprise.

“It was a nice surprise, and I do appreciate Rick staying involved in the process,” she said.

Votes in student government elections in the past 10 years have generally increased at noon. Andrew Phillips, chairman of the Board of Elections, said the uptick in voting at lunchtime makes the effect of the endorsement unclear.

“I hope it helped, but I don’t think it put her over the top,” Ingram said.

A total of 3,992 students voted in Friday’s runoff election, a drop of about 44 percent from the general election’s 7,105 votes, and a 27.4 percent drop from the 2010 runoff election’s 5,499 votes.

Cooper attributed the decline to the length of the election.

“Even when there’s the slightest doubt, students are less interested because of the uncertainty,” she said.

Fourth-place finisher Brooklyn Stephens said voters grew fatigued with the emphasis on rules.

“This year, they were a little bit overwhelmed,” she said.

The Student Code states that runoff elections will be held a week after the general election. Because of the injunction, the runoff was held 17 days after the general election.

“People are still struggling to see what student government is doing for them, and maybe they don’t see elections worth their time,” Ingram said.

Cooper said she wants to give student government a more positive and efficient image.

“Some students outside of student government get turned away from the rules and pettiness that emerges,” she said. “My campaign was about what student government can do for students.”

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