McGee, Pulte advance to run-off for ASG presidency
Correction appended
Updated, 1:09 a.m.
Bill Pulte and Mike McGee will advance to a run-off for the ASG presidency on Friday.
With Medill junior Pulte receiving 48.6 percent of the vote and Communication junior McGee receiving 47.9 percent, neither candidate had the majority required to win under ASG rules. Weinberg junior Luke Adams had 2 percent of the vote. McGee and Pulte were separated by only 33 votes, with McGee receiving 2,116 and Pulte receiving 2,149 votes. Adams received a total of 94 votes.
In the day’s two other races, Matt Bellassai won the race for director of student life with 80.6 percent of the vote. Muhammad Safdari won the race for academic director with 84.4 percent. Both candidates ran unopposed.
ASG Election Commissioner Paul David Shrader announced the results at a Senate meeting on Wednesday evening. A record 4,421 students submitted eligible votes, Shrader said. Last year, approximately 3,200 students voted in the first round of voting.
Though polls were slated to close at 7 p.m., the ASG election commission extended voting by two hours after ASG’s Web site went down in the late afternoon.
“I wish we had won it,” Pulte said from his office in Pi Kappa Alpha, where he and more than 15 supporters had awaited the results until 10:05 p.m. “It looks like we’re going to have to play ball.”
“You can definitely tell the student population is excited about our ticket,” Pulte said of the record turnout. “I think it’s a testament to the campaign we’re running.”
Mike McGee and about 25 supporters heard the results in the seminar room of the Public Affairs Residential College, where McGee lived his freshman and sophomore year.
“We wish it’d been over tonight but it’s not, so we got to keep going,” McGee said.
“Definitely very bittersweet,” said McGee’s running mate Tommy Smithburg. “I definitely wanted to close the deal tonight, go home, start getting ready for a new administration, catch up on homework that I haven’t done yet this quarter. But two more full days of work, that’s exciting. We just gotta make sure we get out there.”
McGee said the closeness of the race didn’t surprise him. “We definitely had similar platforms.”
When asked if he was expecting a race this close, Pulte replied, “Not really.”
Update: A graphic on this article originally stated the write-in candidate as Vickie Humps. The name was actually Dickie Humps. North by Northwestern regrets the error.
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If you do the math(.007 x 4421), Pulte only got 31 more votes than Mike.
This is anyone’s race.
Ben
April 15, 2009 at 10:33 pm
If you do the math(48.6 > 47.9), Pulte got more votes than Mike.
mike
April 15, 2009 at 10:48 pm
if you do the math (last commenter = douche bag), then the last commenter is a douche bag
steven
April 15, 2009 at 10:50 pm
If you do the math (steven = idiot), then steven is an idiot. Mike is absolutely right. Pulte had 33 more votes. What’s wrong with that statement?
RE: steven
April 15, 2009 at 11:02 pm
Too bad we didn’t have multiple candidates for student life. Fosho, Bellassai ain’t done anything this year.
What?
April 15, 2009 at 11:03 pm
they’re both frosh, no?
fishtaco
April 15, 2009 at 11:17 pm
so like doesn’t Pulte have a cute ass?
fishtaco's wife
April 15, 2009 at 11:27 pm
who is vickie humps?!
heynuhey
April 15, 2009 at 11:47 pm
Bill Pulte is a huge douche. The guy’s like 5′1, and half of that is just the size of his head.
PULTEISEVIL
April 15, 2009 at 11:59 pm
haha
funny
April 16, 2009 at 12:04 am
its dickie humps… he’s the one you vote for to fight against the man
boredom
April 16, 2009 at 12:10 am
I didn’t vote because I couldn’t find the box to check for “It Doesn’t Make A Difference since ASG President Can’t Do a Goddam Thing.” Maybe I should have voted for Dickie…
Woof
April 16, 2009 at 12:18 am
gehhhhhh but Mike McGee wants to change funding in a way that would really hurt groups that people actually, you know, go to their events like A&O and Mayfest. Ask him dead in the eye if under his proposal A&O’s funding wouldn’t be slashed and he can’t tell you it wouldn’t. So that one thing does matter.
Ludacris
April 16, 2009 at 12:50 am
in response to “Ludacris” please stop being ignorant. The ASG President cannot singlehandedly make HUGE changes. There is an entirely separate board that deals with funding. So stop being stupid. Please ask an ASG senator or member if you have legit questions. Visit the websites, learn your facts, don’t listen to ignorant sheep. Kthanksbye
Factacris
April 16, 2009 at 1:09 am
Small point of clarification: the announcement was planned to be made at Senate (which ran from approx 7pm till 8pm), but due to the extension of voting, the announcement was made by phone call to each of the individual candidates, followed by announcement to campus media sources.
Dickie Humps was Richard Humphrey, a sophomore back in 2004, who received a large proportion of the votes as a write-in candidate for Student Services Vice President (what’s now Student Life Director), even though he did no campaigning for himself (it was a movement!).
And for Ben, the percentage numbers were rounded. If you really want to get picky (not like 2 votes really makes a difference in it being “anybody’s race”), Bill received 48.608912% of the eligible votes, while Mike received 47.8624746%.
Paul David Shrader
April 16, 2009 at 2:07 am
Poor showing from Dickie this year. The campaign will have to return in earnest next time. Any one know where I can see the results for the other two positions?
D Humps for Life
April 16, 2009 at 11:01 am
At least Mike doesn’t harass you as you’re eating lunch…
Blah
April 16, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Yuck! Shameless political stunt by Pulte: He was standing by the rock with a cute puppy waiting for people to pet it! Can’t wait until he starts kissing babies!
Stephen
April 16, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Welcome to reality. At least Pulte doesn’t embed his supporters in editorials or exec boards that give him endorsements. That’s dirty politics.
RE: Stephen
April 16, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Pulte’s family’s company needs to stop hosing its peacefully protesting workers. What decade is this?!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml00gVWhSGY
Muckraker
April 16, 2009 at 7:42 pm
How does Pulte’s family’s business have any relevance to this article? It would be great if McGee’s supporters would stop trying to dig up dirt on their competition and throw it all over NBN and the Daily’s comment boxes. It just makes you look tacky and desperate.
Just stop
April 16, 2009 at 8:15 pm
What I want to know is…what will either of these candidates do for the Shire?
Bilbo Baggins
April 16, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Pulte is the president of Pike. In Middle Earth, he goes by the name Brodo Baggins.
HUZZAH!
Gandalf
April 17, 2009 at 12:25 am
Is that really Pulte’s family’s business? That definitely puts a lot of things in perspective. Thanks for the link.
omg
April 17, 2009 at 9:00 am
What does Pulte’s family business have to do with him running for ASG president? That’s so stupid. That’s like not voting for Obama because of Jeremiah Wright. You all are so naive and shallow.
Hey
April 17, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Actually, hosing is used in this decade as well. The U.S. military uses it in Iraq, in Somalia, and local law enforcement do use it against American people as a form of anti-riot technique. Maybe you should get with this decade?
RE: Muckraker
April 17, 2009 at 12:11 pm