Randall wins USG presidential runoff

Pettus Randall '04 was declared the next USG president yesterday, capping an election marked by narrow margins and high voter turnout.

"I'm absolutely thrilled," Randall said last night.

Randall made up a deficit in the first round of elections to edge out Sonya Mirbagheri '04 in the presidential runoff, garnering 1341 votes to Mirbagheri's 1295, said Michael Kimberly '03, senior elections manager.

Randall said he wants to address the seven-week athletics moratorium and push for a 24-hour study area when he takes office next semester.

The moratorium is "fundamentally flawed" by inappropriately singling out athletics, Randall said.

Randall, who last week wrote a USG resolution denouncing the moratorium, said he hopes to work with the University administration to understand the goal of the moratorium — and find a better way to address it.

More broadly, Randall said he wants the USG to "be more relevant to the students" by making substantive changes and standing up to the administration.

In the vice-presidential runoff, Jacqui Perlman '04 received 63 percent of the vote to defeat Brooke Stoddard '04.

The voter turnout was 59 percent, up from 57 percent in the general election. Kimberly said the turnout was "unprecedented," since typically only 37 to 43 percent of students vote in runoffs.

"I was really, really floored when the results came in," he said. "It's clear that this is an anomaly. It's the first time in institutional memory that this has happened."

In another first, the candidate with fewer votes in the general election emerged the eventual victor. In the first round of elections earlier this week, Randall trailed Mirbagheri by 340 votes and defeated Josh Anderson '04 by only two votes to earn a spot in the runoff.

Mirbagheri and Randall set up several laptops in the Frist Campus Center, dining halls and eating clubs where students could vote.

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"That was a very clever move on his part," Kimberly said. "Given the narrow margin of victory, I would attribute his victory to that."

Since the presidential election was decided by just 46 votes out of an unusually high number of votes cast, Kimberly asked the Registrar's office to verify the total. The process, which involves checking social security numbers and running the data through an algorithm, is usually not needed for runoffs.

Mirbagheri congratulated Randall and said she has no regrets about the election.

"I wouldn't have given up the experience for the world," she said. "You come to Princeton to meet people, and the cool thing during an election is that you get to go door to door and into dining halls discovering people."

She added, "I have enjoyed every moment of serving as vice president."

Mirbagheri will be replaced next semester by Perlman, who said she looks forward to working with Randall to make "effective changes that will improve the daily lives of students."

Perlman added that she plans to address every issue on her platform, though most pressing is the seven-week moratorium.

"Jacqui's a good friend of mine," Stoddard said. "She's extremely qualified, and she'll do a great job."

The candidates were pleased by the high voter turnout.

"It's great to know that students are interested in the election," Perlman said.

Stoddard attributed the turnout to a higher-profile election, crediting the high level of campaigning overall and the unconventional methods of candidate Octavio Carrasco '04.

"He brought a different side to the USG," Stoddard said. "It's great that we had a variety of candidates. He increased awareness that there was an election going on."

Kimberly said he did not believe Carrasco significantly influenced the election, since voter turnout was not higher than normal for the general election.

"The candidates were just really diligent in campaigning," Kimberly said.

Randall and Perlman will take office at the beginning of the spring semester on Feb. 3.