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Bermann retains '09 presidency

“I’m thrilled,” said Bermann, who garnered 347 votes to Williams’ 336. “Obviously, it was stressful during the election itself because I knew it would be really close. Alec is a really likable guy and did a great job campaigning. I expected it to be really close, and it was.”

Bermann said there was increased interest in the race because most other high-profile class officers ran unopposed. Both the Class of 2010 and Class of 2011 presidencies were uncontested.

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Despite his loss, Williams said he was pleased with his performance. “We came in having no advantages and almost knocked off a three-term incumbent,” he said. “I’m extremely proud, especially of the people who helped me with the campaign.”

If Williams had defeated Bermann, it would have been the second year in a row that a class president who had served for three years was defeated in a bid to retain his post for a final year. Last spring, Class of 2008 president Grant Gittlin — who had headed his class since his freshman year — fell to challenger Tom Haine ’08.

Now that he is set to serve a final year as class president, Bermann said he has begun planning senior year events. He met with Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne yesterday afternoon to discuss next June’s Class Day and Commencement events.

Other elections

In other races, Class of 2010 vice president Aditya Panda fended off a challenge from David Levit ’10, garnering 392 votes to Levit’s 131. Class of 2011 vice president Trevor Martin, however, lost his reelection bid to Michael Perl ’11, receiving 227 votes to Pearl’s 271. All other incumbents ran uncontested.

Current U-Councilors Davion Chism ’09, Brian No ’10, Liz Rosen ’10 and Maria Salciccioli ’09 all won re-election. They will be joined by newcomers Jacob Candelaria ’09, Julia Kaplan ’11, Kate Huddleston ’11, Harry Schiff ’10, Lang Wang ’11 and John Zumpetta ’11.

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In the race for USG social chair, Julia Jacobson ’10 defeated Nicholas Antoine ’11 by a margin of 1,359 votes to 543.

Roughly 40 percent of the student body — or 1,900 students — took part in this week’s election. The announcement of election results was delayed yesterday, after a change in the scripting language used to create the online ballot prevented the Office of the Registrar from confirming the races’ outcomes.

2007 election violation

USG officials also acknowledged Tuesday that last year’s U-Council election violated both Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC) bylaws and the USG constitution. In previous years, U-Councilors were elected using the single-transferable vote (STV) formula, in which voters ranked their top three candidate choices. Last year, however, USG officials changed the format so that students ranked 10 candidates in order of preference, with each choice awarded a decreasing amount of points. The 10 candidates with the most points won U-Council seats.

CPUC and USG bylaws, however, mandate that U-Council elections be conducted using the STV formula. USG president Josh Weinstein ’09, who served as senior elections manager during last spring’s vote, has said that no one on the USG was aware of the violation at the time.

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This year, the USG reverted to an STV system, though voters selected only two preferred candidates rather than three.

U-Councilors interviewed expressed dismay at the news that last spring’s election may have violated regulations. “It’s obviously very shocking to me,” Salciccioli said. “I was pretty surprised and upset by it.”

Nevertheless, Weinstein maintained that last year’s election was a “fair process,” even though it technically violated election bylaws. “There have long been problems with elections and documentation and we are finally addressing them,” he said in an e-mail. “We are fixing what is broken within the organization — updating documents, addressing issues with elections — to ensure its long-term sustainability and I think students are mindful of our intentions.”

Though the current slate of U-Councilors was elected using the weighted-preference system, Weinstein and Class of 2009 senator Bruce Halperin both have said it’s possible that the results of last April’s election would have been different had the STV formula been used.

Senior elections manager Braeden Kepner-Krauss ’10 said that election reform is in order. “I would say that definitely we want to make some changes from this year,” he said. “To have it work properly, you have to let people rank as many preferences as there are spots.” He noted that this year, there was a risk that not all 10 seats on the U-Council would fill, since votes might have concentrated on only a few candidates and prevented others from receiving the necessary quota to be elected.

USG vice president Mike Wang ’10 noted that eliminating the requirement for using STV might be a lengthy process. “Changing the voting procedure on the CPUC Charter would require us to garner the support of many members of the faculty and administration as well,” he said in an e-mail, “so we should approach the process very deliberately and methodically.”