Sullivan, BLOC party sweep SGA elections

The Bold Leaders on Campus party, led by president-elect Molly Sullivan, swept Wednesday's Student Government Association elections, which saw the highest voter turnout since 1999.

The party defeated the Blue Hen Voice party and independent candidate Billy Leonard in the first SGA race in recent history that included two full parties.

"I'm so honored and I'm excited to serve. This is like a dream," Sullivan said after results were announced Thursday afternoon. "I remember watching [2008-2009 SGA president] Teagan Gregory speak and being like ‘Oh my God, he's student government president,' and now it's me."

Besides Sullivan, a junior, the winners include incumbent junior Jessica Ma as vice president, freshman Andrew Shermeyer as treasurer, sophomore Michelle Barineau as director of public relations, freshman Tierney Keller as director of programming and sophomore David Mroz as director of operations.

The BLOC party ran on three main platforms: increasing the visibility of SGA, making the organization more transparent and improving campus safety by pushing for bike lanes on campus and a more efficient bus system.

Sullivan said Thursday that one of her first moves as president will be to better reach out to the organization's general members, students who are not elected or appointed to official positions but still want to be involved.

"I want to make sure general members are welcomed, and I want students to know they can come to us," she said.

Sullivan credited her party's win to members' comfortableness in working with each other and their efforts to greet voters in the students centers.

"I'm excited for my team that we all won together," she said "We were getting the word out there about what SGA does and how we all want to work together."

Abby Stollar, SGA's current director of public relations, attributed the BLOC party's sweep to its knowledge of the way SGA works.

"Experience-wise, the six of them have experience in those positions," Stollar said. "Each person who is in a specific position for next year has been on that committee, and that's going to make them very successful. "

Junior Chris McElwee, the BHV party's candidate for president, said even though his party lost, he wished Sullivan and her administration luck.

"They're a very organized bunch and a very dedicated bunch," McElwee said.

McElwee, who has served as SGA's treasurer for the past two years, said he is not sure whether he will return to the organization as a general member or an appointed senator.

"Molly has been very clear to me that she would like me to come back," he said. "Obviously, for my own personal growth, I haven't decided if that's the road I'm going to go down."

Sullivan said 2,097 students, or 12.6 percent of the student body, voted in the election, the highest turnout in more than a decade. It dwarfs last year's total of 658 and 2009's total of 96.

Historically, SGA has struggled to get students to vote, but in the last two years the organization has made strides to increase the visibility of the election, in which students vote online.

This year, the candidates all filmed campaign ads that were posted on SGA's website, and the group held a meet-the-candidates event the day before the election. That marks a clear distinction from two years ago, when the election was not promoted and the names of the candidates were not available until students logged in to vote.

"I think a lot of it was also attributed to the fact that we had two full parties and one independent candidate, which hasn't happened in a really long time," Stollar added.

The full results, including how many votes each candidate received, will be released Friday once the figures have been verified, Stollar said.