After nearly a week of runoff voting, Nagela Nukuna and Shane Mudrinich have won the Undergraduate Student Government Association (SGA) Executive ticket.
Nukuna and Mudrinich received 1,460 votes in the runoff election, resulting in a lead with approximately 54 percent of the vote. Their competitors, Anju Suresh and Ben Nickel, received 1,247 votes during the runoff, which took place from April 15 to April 19.
Nukuna and Mudrinich ran on a platform stressing wellness and personal success, enhanced parking and transportation, campus inclusivity and diversity, academic concerns/student programs and new student resource improvements. Condensed to the acronym “We Can”, the platform aims to achieve Nukuna and Mudrinich’s vision of “a campus where students of all backgrounds and identities have equal opportunity and access to achieve the highest degree of success as they define it.”
SGA’s Elections Committee, helmed by Matthew Daigle, released their elections report simultaneously with the results of the Undergraduate Executive race.
Of the four tickets running for president and executive vice president, two were charged with campaign violations: Suresh and Nickel were charged with one count of violating Section V, Subsection A, Line C of the Elections Code, which prohibits “campaigning” — in any form, including advertising one’s entrance into the election — prior to an established date. As a result, Suresh and Nickel received a one percent total reduction to their budget upon the Election Committee’s decision during campaign season.
Suresh and Nickel were furthermore charged with one combined count of “purposeful filing of frivolous violations against another campaign,” in conjunction with a code which holds candidates responsible for the actions of people working for or affiliated with their campaign (per Appendix II, Subsection B, Line 7/Section V, Line D). No penalty was assigned to Suresh/Nickel for this violation.
Sara Dada and Andrew Perry, who came in third place in the initial election, were charged with one violation of Elections Code Section V, Subsection C, Line 1, which states that “solicitation of campaign members, before the official start of campaigning, must be done on an individual basis.” Dada/Perry received a penalty of a one percent total reduction in budget upon the decision.