Candidates Bob Reish and Grant Schmidt came 61 votes short of capturing the student body presidency and vice presidency during the primary elections Monday.
Reish and Schmidt received 1,870 votes, 48.43 percent of the total 3,861 votes cast. Since they did not receive 50 percent of the total votes, they will compete in a run-off against Maris Braun and running mate George Chamberlain, who came in second.
Braun, the current student body vice president, and Chamberlain, the senator from Sorin Hall, received 866 votes, or 22.43 percent of the total.
Schmidt said he and Reish were "pleased" with the results. The pair is looking forward to Thursday's election.
"We're excited for Thursday," Reish said. "I think our supporters came out and we'll see what happens Thursday."
Braun and Chamberlain said they were surprised by the results.
"I think it's really hard to tell how things are going to pan out, especially in this election with six tickets," Braun said. "I was surprised, but I really didn't know what was going to happen."
Though the Braun-Chamberlain ticket received 1,004 fewer votes than the Reish-Schmidt ticket, Chamberlain said he and Braun are not ready to concede and are looking forward to the run-off.
"We're going to keep campaigning," Chamberlain said. "I'm just excited about Thursday, really. We'll just do our best and hope the campaign goes well."
Both tickets said they would evaluate the results and target the dorms where they think they can improve.
Braun especially stressed the importance of a "grassroots" campaign.
"I think we're going to take a look at the dorms where we feel we can make an impact and go from there," she said. "We'll focus on grassroots campaigning for the next few days and go from there."
Reish and Schmidt also plan to visit dorms during the next few days.
"We're going to reevaluate the dorms we contacted - see where our weak dorms are, see where our strong dorms are and go from there," Reish said. "I think the biggest thing is making sure people realize what we stand for."
While Braun and Chamberlain attempt to gain more support, Reish and Schmidt said their major concern is maintaining the backing they already have.
"Getting those 1,870 kids [that voted for us] to vote again is the biggest thing that we want to push," Schmidt said.
Both sets of candidates said it is imperative that students vote on Thursday.
"It's pretty painless to vote, so hopefully students will remember," Braun said. "I think it's important to speak your mind, whatever that may be."
The run-off election will take place from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday.
