After topping a field of five tickets in Monday's election, Saint Mary's first year presidential and vice presidential running mates Francesca Johnson and Pauline Kistka will face Mary Conroy and Katie Connolly in a runoff election today.
Johnson and Kistka finished first in Monday's vote with 49.73 percent and were followed by Conroy and Connolly, who earned 25.67 percent, elections commissioner Danielle Lerner said.
Audry Anweiler and Maura Clougherty finished third with 9.63 percent of the vote, followed by Maggie Johnson and Christina Partyka with 9.02 percent and Jennifer Gray and Therese Tschudy with 6.95 percent. There were two abstentions, Lerner said.
"A total of 189 students voted and there are currently 404 students in the class of 2009, so approximately 46.78 percent voted, which is a pretty good turnout," Lerner said.
The two top tickets were notified they had advanced to today's runoff Tuesday at 9 a.m. and were given additional instructions. The candidates were permitted to actively campaign until Tuesday at midnight, which both said they did vigorously.
"We were so excited," said Kistka. "We were so surprised, we weren't sure how it would turn out."
Kistka said she and Johnson made no major changes to their platform or strategy Tuesday but continued to make their names know to their classmates by knocking on doors and passing out stickers.
Roommates Conroy and Connolly were right back to work after they received their phone call from Lerner, Conroy said.
"We were very excited but right away we were thinking, 'What's our next step?'" Conroy said.
The candidates received best wished from students all day long, Conroy said.
"Various people on campus, literally people from every class, said congratulations," Conroy said.
After covering herself with signs, she and Connolly spent three hours Tuesday night visiting first years' rooms on campus, Conroy said.
"We just stressed we are here for them totally," Conroy said.
While she cannot campaign for herself today, she is going to encourage her classmates to log onto Prism and vote, Connolly said.
Voting runs through midnight tonight and results will be announced Thursday morning, Lerner said.
