Senior Class headed for ?rst run-off election in years

Tuesday’s election for senior class president resulted in a rare runoff election between two of the three candidate pairs because neither received a majority of the vote.

After 1,465 total votes cast, Tim Palmer and Nora Chan will face Adam Jutha and Sarah Kaminer in a runoff Feb. 21.

Palmer and Chan came in first with 621 votes, followed by Jutha and Kaminer with 466 votes.

Brennan Fox and Sarah Mafe came in third with 315 votes and will not be in the runoff.

The race was marked by some controversy, as some juniors were unable to vote on the studentlife.unc.edu website.

But some sophomores could, because voting ability was based on credit hours, not students’ declared graduating year, Shruthi Sundaram, chairwoman of the Board of Elections.

Students were responsible for updating their class year on ConnectCarolina, Sundaram said. But many students are unaware of the procedure, she said.

The board alerted all candidates, who told their supporters to email the board’s listserv or its leaders, with their votes.

Sundaram said she did not think the complication deterred people from voting because emailing is simpler than logging onto studentlife.unc.edu.

Going into the runoff, the board will consult with Information Technology Services to fix the issue, Sundaram said.

Palmer and Chan said they are excited.

“It’s a little anticlimactic getting a runoff, but we’re not too surprised because all the candidates were really strong,” Chan said.

“But it is great to see a lot of hard work kind of coming to fruition, pay off, and see some progress,” Palmer said.

Part of that hard work was collecting signatures for their petition purely in person, not online.

“We didn’t have any electronic signatures, and I think that really helped us,” Chan said.

Jutha and Kaminer also said they are looking forward to the runoff, and willing to put in extra work in the next week.

Both expressed a determination to reach out and network more before the election.

“Most of it will be equipping close friends and classmates to reach out to their friends,” Kaminer said.

“A lot of it for us is continuing to be ourselves,” Jutha said.

Kaminer said the team’s foundation is firm and its supporters are loyal.

“They’re not going anywhere, but I think it will just be meeting more people,” she said.

Fox and Mafe said they were excited for all the candidates and enjoyed running, but declined to endorse other candidates.

The unopposed candidates for other offices — Johnathan Flynn for the Carolina Athletic Association, Heather Robertson for the Residence Hall Association and Michael Bertucci for the Graduate and Professional Student Federation — all won seats.

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.