For the first time in recent memory, an SGA election was decided by runoff after two candidates tied in last week’s midterm elections.
The draw between sophomore Annie Woodward and first-year Jordan Grabo was the first since April 2017.
Matt Sorensen, SGA treasurer and chair of the elections committee, said the stalemate was a sign of an increase in political awareness of campus politics.
“Really competitive elections are a good thing for candidate quality,” Sorensen said. “It shows people are paying attention. People are voting, checking their platforms and making informed decisions.”
Midterm elections are required by the SGA Constitution if four or more seats are open. This time around, seven seats were open with 12 candidates vying for their respective spots.
Six of those races were won outright, except for the bout between Woodward and Grabo, which set up last week’s runoff.
After the second round of voting, Woodward emerged victorious.
Sorensen said the runoff is the latest in a recent trend of heightened participation in SGA. Last spring, SGA held elections for president and vice president, which Sorensen said were the most competitive ever, with nearly 2,000 students casting a ballot.
About 400 students voted in last week’s runoff, he said.
The historic tie highlights the importance of even a single vote, Sorensen said.
“Every single person who wants to vote could change the outcome, because if one more person had voted for either of these candidates, they would’ve won outright and there wouldn’t have been a runoff,” he said.
Sophomore Annie Woodward, a public health sciences major, said her initial interest in student government evolved out of a light semester workload and interest in meeting new people.
“As I was writing my essay and prepping for [the election], I realized I was a bit more passionate than I even thought I was before,” she said.
Woodward is most interested in joining either the student activity and wellbeing or club affairs committees, she said.
“I’ve been involved in multiple clubs at UVM, and even though I wasn’t on the board for them, I kind of noticed this discontinuous nature between what clubs wanted and what SGA was able to give them,” Woodward said.