On Monday, the results of the 2023 ASUU elections at the University of Utah were announced — the O’Leary ticket won.

The ticket is composed of President-elect Jack O’Leary, VP of Student Relations-elect Parker Madsen, and VP of University Relations-elect Chloe Shewell. They had 40.21% of the total votes, amounting to 1,789 votes. 

“I’m so incredibly proud of my team and so incredibly thankful to the student body,” O’Leary said. “And I’m so so excited to embark on this journey.”

According to the election results report, there were 4,449 student votes cast in the election, which totals to roughly 13% student body participation.

The VKW ticket received 31.65% of the electoral votes with 1,408 student votes — 381 fewer votes than the O’Leary ticket. The Karabegovic ticket received 23.02% of the total vote.

Last week, ASUU faced backlash for sanctions placed on the VKW and Karabegovic executive tickets after the ASUU Supreme Court found them to have violated endorsement policy in the ASUU elections packet.

The grievance was brought by Ian Linnabary, campaign manager of the O’Leary ticket, who alleged the Karabegovic and VKW tickets violated the ASUU elections policy by, what he said, seeking an endorsement from Unsafe U. Unsafe U is an organization that aims to educate students about campus safety at the University of Utah, but they are not affiliated with the U according to their Instagram page.

In a public hearing last Tuesday, the tickets were found to be in violation of the endorsements clause of the elections packet, which states, “Endorsements from university employees who are not enrolled students in the ASUU, or ANY off-campus entities, are strictly forbidden.”

Both tickets were forbidden from campaigning, online or in-person, from 6 a.m. last Wednesday to 6 a.m. last Thursday. This included no activity on their campaign social media accounts or campaign-related posts on candidates’ personal social media accounts.

An ASUU Instagram post that notified students of the election results is full of over 200 comments with passionate reactions which voiced disappointment, frustration and support.

In a comment with 200 likes, U student Areesha Nazir said the little amount of trust she had left in the ASUU system is gone “after allowing a ticket that got away with cheating time and time again to win,” she wrote. “ … But I’m so happy for all the white and/or Greek life students who voted for them who get to be the only ones represented by ASUU once again. This system is made for and run by white students and it’s my own fault for thinking that change was actually gonna be allowed.”

A comment from U Business major Broxton Rose vowed his support for the O’Leary ticket.

“Historic win for Jack O’Leary. He is a trailblazer that will be renowned by the university for years to come,” he wrote. “We finally have LGBT representation in the student presidency that has been oh so needed. Barriers have been broken. Change is coming.”

While O’Leary will be the first openly gay man to hold the position of student body president, Jess Wojciechowski, 2021-2022 ASUU president, was the first openly queer student to hold the office.

Another U student, Radhika Bhakta commented, “Disappointing and not surprising, just another reason why I don’t believe in ASUU’s ability to create actual changes on campus.”

The O’Leary ticket will be inaugurated into office on April 26, 2023.

The results for Attorney General, Senate and Assembly elections are as follows:

Attorney General

Angelina Ho won with 33% of the vote, beating four other candidates.

College of Architecture and Planning

Senate: John “Jack” Israelsen received 84% of the vote.

Assembly: Andry Joseph ran uncontested and received 83% of votes cast.

College of Cultural & Social Transformation

Assembly: Naphtali Garcia won with an even 50% of the 28 total votes cast.

David Eccles School of Business

Senate: Jack Fuetterer won with 35% of the vote. Over 37% of students voting in this race voted for “none of these candidates.”

Assembly: Abdalla Alfaham, Nick Bayard, Justine Nguyen, Tyler Shumway, Charles Crockett and Michael Flores won assembly positions in the business school. There were 15 candidates in total.

College of Education

Senate: Abigail Taylor ran uncontested and received 84.29% of the votes.

College of Engineering

Senate: Austin Neff won with 41% of the votes.

Assembly: Christina Dong, Faith Alba, Mary Cernyar, Erik Bond and Betul Oguz won the five available assembly seats.

College of Fine Arts

Senate: Anna Roelofs ran uncontested and received 84% of the votes.

Assembly: Dillan Burnett ran uncontested and won with 87%.

College of Health

Senate: Andrea Garcia won with 84% and ran uncontested.

Assembly: Emma Ross and Belle Barlow won the two open assembly seats.

College of Humanities

Senate: Lillian Ault won with 43% of votes cast.

Assembly: Mercedes Johnson ran uncontested and received 59% of the vote.

School of Medicine

Senate: Sarah Lucas ran uncontested and received 82% of the vote.

Assembly: Adam Kotter and Jordyn Colligan won the two open assembly seats.

College of Nursing

Assembly: Emily Moore ran uncontested and received 92% of votes.

College of Pharmacy

Assembly: Lindsey Kisielewski ran uncontested and gained 86% of votes cast.

College of Science

Assembly: Scott Perkins, Megan Hammond and Merrin Maughan won the three open seats. There were eight candidates total.

College of Social & Behavioral Science

Senate: Hannah Truax received 48%, beating out two other candidates.

Assembly: Lydia Altamiranda, Edgardo Antonio Chicas Rubio, Anna Locke and Karina Barker won the four available seats. There were 11 candidates running.

College of Social Work

Assembly: McKenzie Johnson ran uncontested, winning 88% of the votes.

There are open Assembly seats in the School of Dentistry, College of Education, College of Fine Arts, College of Humanities, College of Law and Undergraduate Studies.

There are still open Senate seats in the College of Undergraduate Studies, College of Social Work, College of Science, College of Pharmacy, College of Nursing, College of Law, School of Dentistry, and College of Cultural and Social Transformation.

[email protected]

@AllisonChrony

This article was updated on March 1, 2023, to clarify Jack O’Leary is the first openly gay student body president-elect of ASUU. However, Jess Wojciechowski (2021-22) was the first openly queer person to assume the position.