Pasqualichio wins SGB presidency

In the first-ever online Student Government Board election, Joe Pasqualichio won the… In the first-ever online Student Government Board election, Joe Pasqualichio won the presidency last night with 1,795 votes. Three out of four presidential candidates received more than 1,000 votes in an election that saw 4,800 votes cast for president.

Pasqualichio leapt out of his chair when he heard the news and hugged outgoing board member Liz Blasi. He then shook hands with friends and supporters.

“This is great. We just put so much work into this. It’s unbelievable,” he said. “It’s really great to see the results.”

He added, “I couldn’t have done it without all the people supporting me.”

Pasqualichio won with 1,795 votes, according to the elections committee’s results. Outgoing board member Zach Ransom took second with 1,205. Former board member Joe Salvatore received 1,119. Joe Gookin snagged 681 votes.

Alli Winn was the highest vote-getting candidate for board with 1,597 votes, followed closely by Will Powers, who had 1,592. The eight highest vote-getting candidates for board are elected.

“We’ll see how it goes,” Powers said. “I’m looking forward to working with the people on board. It’s going to be very interesting.”

Jennifer Anukem took in 1,375, making her the only current board member – other than Pasqualichio – who will be returning next year.

Aimee Kleer, who received 1,526 votes, believes that there were more voters because they could vote online and knew it.

“I think that the high voter turnout was because it was online with all of that publicity,” Kleer said.

This year’s presidential election had 2,000 more voters than last year’s. Official numbers for total voters in the board election were unavailable last night.

Outgoing two-term SGB President Brian Kelly said he believes Pasqualichio will make a good president. Pasqualichio was a board member during both of Kelly’s terms.

“I have complete confidence that he will do a great job in reaching out to students,” Kelly said.

Erica Lillquist, Sheila Isong, Joe Leinbach and Shady Henien rounded out the new board to make eight. Lillquist got 1,305 votes, Isong got 1,541, Leinbach got 1,452 and Henein took in 1,381.

Henein and Winn ran on Pasqualichio’s Driven slate. Anukem and Leinbach were on Ransom’s Proven slate.

Instead of tallying the votes by dorm, which was done last year, Kelly posted the votes by time period to show the total voters by time of day.

“My goal for this was 5,000 students, and I believe we hit that number,” elections chair Greg Heller-LaBelle said.

“In terms of turnout I believe that the student will was adequately represented,” he added.

He also thanked all of the candidates because “nobody was frivolous or petty, everyone was graceful.”