The 2020 student government presidential election will continue with a runoff election between the Ingal-Galbenski ticket and the Patidar-Patrick ticket, Judicial Council announced Thursday night. Turnout was 42% of the electorate. The results were supposed to be announced Tuesday night but were delayed following a round of sanctions and appeals.
The runoff debate and election are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.
Although none of the tickets — Bates-Henry, Dugan-Pozas, Ingal-Galbenski, Patidar-Patrick and Whittle-Rotolo — received the required 50% of votes to win the election — campaigning will be suspended through Junior Parents Weekend and will be permitted beginning Tuesday at midnight and ending Wednesday at 8 p.m, Judicial Council president Halena Hadi said.
The Ingal-Galbenski ticket received 1213 votes and the Patidar-Patrick ticket received 781 votes. The Dugan-Pozas Garza ticket received the third-largest number of votes, with 678 votes. 410 students voted for the Whittle-Rotolo ticket and 265 voters chose the Bates-Henry ticket. 128 students voted to abstain. A total of 254 votes were invalidated due to sanctions against the Dugan-Pozas Garza ticket, and the Mercugliano-Lund ticket, which was forced to forfeit its candidacy.Juniors Rachel Ingal and Sarah Galbenski said they would like to thank their teams for informing their platform and providing encouragement throughout the process.
“I think overall we’re feeling immensely grateful for everyone who supported us and walked with us in this entire journey, I couldn’t feel more blessed in this moment,” Ingal said.
Junior presidential candidate Noble Patidar said he was proud of their ticket regardless of the results, and he sees their team simply as friends running together.
“We came into this with the mentality of having fun,” Patidar said. “Win or lose we’re going to impact the student body positively, whether we’re student body president and VP or not.”
Patidar's running mate, freshman Connor Patrick, said he met Patidar the first week of classes at the University, and he's particularly thankful for his friendship with Patidar and the campaign they have undergone together. “I just feel so grateful for our team, for Noble and for everyone who supported us because we're here and we're not backing down,” Patrick said. “We're going to keep fighting for a better Notre Dame.”While the Whittle-Rotolo ticket will not move on to the runoff election, junior Connor Whittle said he wishes the best of luck to the two remaining tickets and believes both would be fantastic options for the student body. Whittle also apologized for the issues surrounding the election which included an allegation hearing and sanction appeals.
“On behalf of our entire campus we’re sorry for how this process has gone at times, there have been controversies at certain turns and we’re sorry to see that and sorry that we couldn’t do better as student leaders to make this a noncontroversial election at every point,” Whittle said.
Freshmen Henry Bates and Thomas Henry, who did not receive enough votes to be included in the runoff election, emphasized they only attended the results for one reason.
“I would like to tell Notre Dame student government that I’m just here so we don’t get fined,” Bates said.
The Dugan-Pozas Garza ticket did not respond to The Observer’s request for comment. The Mercugliano-Lund was required to forfeit their candidacy for violating Section 17.1(i)(1) of the Student Body Constitution, which reads: “The promise of any office or position in the Student Union by any ticket or candidate shall be considered highly unethical behavior, the penalty for which may include a maximum penalty of forfeiture of candidacy.” They could not be immediately reached for comment. Assistant Managing Editor Maria Leontaras contributed to this report.
