Christy Lambden defeated Will Lindsey for student body president

In an unexpected outcome, Christy Lambden was elected student body president in a runoff election Tuesday, winning 55 percent of the vote and defeating Will Lindsey.

The candidates had an extra week to campaign because neither collected a majority of the votes in the general election last week — though Lindsey finished in first by a 15-point margin.

“I’m just absolutely delighted,” Lambden said. “To come up with a victory is really exceptional.”

Lambden received the most endorsements from student organizations out of the five original candidates. He collected 22 percent of the vote in the general election.

Lindsey, who received 37 percent of the vote — easily the largest percentage of any candidate — in the general election, collected 45 percent of the vote in the runoff.

He also collected the most petition signatures of the five candidates in the campaign’s beginning stages.

“I’m surprised and disappointed,” Lindsey said.

Only 4,317 students voted in the runoff election this year, down from 4,600 students in last year’s runoff election between Calvin Lewis and current student body president Will Leimenstoll. The turnout — the second-lowest in a runoff in the past 10 years — is also more than 1,000 less than the number of votes cast last week.

Lambden received 2,386 votes to Lindsey’s 1,931.

The last time a candidate finished in second place in the general election and still won the runoff election was in 2009 when Jasmin Jones was elected by a slim margin.

The campaign season began with controversy when Lambden and candidate Rob Jones filed complaints against Lindsey and candidate Hetali Lodaya for false start and signature-gathering violations.

Lindsey and Lodaya were both found to have violated campaign rules by the Board of Elections and had their budgets reduced.

Lindsey said he will continue to advocate for students in his position as chairman of the Carolina Advocacy Committee.

“I’m still committed to that, and there are two days next week when we’re going to Raleigh,” he said.

Lambden said he is glad that he can start focusing on implementing his platform.

“Campaign season is an entity of its own. It was wonderful to be a part of it,” he said.

Leimenstoll said he looks forward to working with Lambden.

“If he thought he was working hard, he needs to get ready to work even harder,” he said.

“It is a huge responsibility, and I hope he’s excited about it, but also ready.”

Staff writer Kristen Skill contributed reporting.

Contact the desk editor at university@dailytarheel.com.