Ryan Honea is the Student Government Association president-elect for the 2016-17 academic year.
Honea received 415 votes over Faith Merriweather’s 405. Jay Alvarez, who was named ineligible for the presidency the day before elections began, received 17 votes.
There were 15 additional write-in candidates.
Honea said being SGA president had always been a part of his long-term plan.
“When they were saying the names [of the other write-in candidates], I was thinking a ton of different things like ‘OK what’s my contingency plan if I lose,’” Honea said. “But most of my long-term plan has been going towards that election so I often didn’t think much past it.
“When I saw how many people came to support me, all the friends I’ve gained and all the people who really do care about me… that was pretty powerful.”
Honea won by 10 votes and he attributed that success to last-minute campaigning on the last day of elections.
“I was completely exhausted eating dinner on Thursday night at 6 p.m. and I remember thinking, ‘There’s five hours and 45 minutes left until those polls close,’” Honea said. “So I called Dylan Kellogg and said ‘If you want to win this I think we’ve got more work to do.’ I just felt like [the election] was close.”
Honea said he called friends, walked around campus to talk to people and even talked to residents of Meacham Apartments who were outside because of a fire alarm.
Honea said he will be sworn in as president within the next few weeks, though current SGA President Will Roberts will be acting president until the commencement ceremony in May 2016.
The Executive Council for the 2016-17 year will be Kellogg as vice president and Blaine Gundersen as executive secretary.
In addition to the presidency, eight SGA positions were elected for all colleges and classes.
In the College of Education Alvarez, Jenna Cottingham and Elizabeth Johnson are the elected senators.
In the College of Arts and Letters, Sara Alexander, Thomas Murphy and Austin Street are the elected senators.
In the College of Behavioral and Health Sciences, Duane Kessler, Jose Linares and Sierra Salandy are the elected senators.
In the College of Business Trenton Delane, Lillian Long and Eric Powell are the elected senators.
In the College of Science and Mathematics Colin Crist, Dominic Critchlow and Dasia Frank are the elected senators.
Jordan Kent was elected as the senator for the sophomore class.
Frank Burns was elected as the senator for the junior class.
Jordan Burns was elected as the senator for the senior class.