Some candidates cried, others screamed as the results of the ASUU primary elections were announced on Friday morning.
Kariann Hibbard, elections registrar for the Associated Students of the University of Utah, revealed that the GO and the Revolution parties will face off in final elections next week. The two parties were separated by 100 votes, with the Synergy Party finishing a distant third.
GO received 1,427 votes and Revolution received 1,327 votes. Slightly more than 4,000 students voted in the election, the lowest total in a primary election in the last five years.
Although the GO Party was happy with the results, they indicated they still have work to do if they expect to win the general election.
“We are very pleased with the results,” said Pace Johnson, presidential candidate for the GO Party. “But we still have a lot more effort to put in this week. We will continue to work with our core committee and do what we can to build on this success.”
The Revolution Party was also pleased with the results, but hope they can find the votes needed to close the gap and win the election.
“We are very happy,” said Tayler Clough, presidential candidate for the Revolution Party. “One hundred votes is nothing. We will continue doing what we are doing. I am confident we can find the votes needed to make up the difference.”
A disappointed Synergy Party reacted to the news with feelings of resignation and introspection, according to Clint Hugie, the party’s candidate for president.
“This is difficult,” Hugie said. “We gave it our all, but I guess it wasn’t quite good enough. We have no regrets, but you have to wonder if there was more you could do. I will look back and always wonder if I should have done more.”
The Revolution and GO parties will also square off in the race for senior class president, where the GO Party’s Erica Andersen won the primary over the Revolution Party’s Quentin Hodges by almost 175 votes.
All three parties will be represented in the race for various General Assembly and Senate seats. In the Senate, the GO Party will have 13 candidates on the ballot, Synergy will have 10 and Revolution will have nine. In the Assembly, GO will have 44 candidates, Revolution will have 32 and Synergy will have 20.
“We didn’t have any real expectations going in as far as how our candidates would do,” Johnson said. “But we are certainly happy with the results.”
General elections will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the winner will be announced Thursday morning on the Union Patio.
“We need to work harder and do everything we can to get to every student,” Clough said. “With a little more push, this could continue to be a very interesting race.”
