Norton and Becker win primary
By LAURA ROMPF
Assistant News Editor
Except for the 30 seconds it took to fill out a ballot, Monday was normal for most students. But for the 12 candidates running for student body president and vice president, Monday was the culmination of weeks of campaigning, hanging signs and shaking hands.
At a little after 9 p.m., Judicial Council vice president of elections JohnBauters informed the six tickets that Brooke Norton and Brian Mascona would face Ryan Becker and Nikki McCord in Thursday's run-off election.
"I was really excited to hear the results," said presidential candidate Brooke Norton, whose ticket received 42 percent of the vote. "I am looking forward to a hard week."
Ryan Becker, whose ticket received 23 percent of the vote, said he is satisfied with the totals.
"All along we wanted to make sure that we'd make it to the second day," Becker said. "There were a lot of good candidates this year and we're happy simply to make it to the run-off."
Last year's student body elections included several campaign violations, a disqualification and an appeal, but Bauters said this year's election has run smoothly so far.
"The reason this year's election has been so good is because we have quality candidates across the board," Bauters said. "The Notre Dame student body had the most difficult decision it's had in years."
Bauters said election stations in each dorm closed by 7 p.m. and judicial council members counted the 3,801 total ballots in a little over an hour so the results could be announced by 9 p.m.
Demetra Smith and Yogeld Andre surprised many by receiving 20 percent of the vote. Because neither Smith or Andre has been involved with student government before, Smith said the large number of students who supported their platform was refreshing.
"This gives me faith in the integrity of Notre Dame students," Smith said.
"I'm so thrilled about the results. I'm proud of the student body, they rocked the vote. We were running on issues and we're so thrilled that the students were as excited as we were."
Smith said they both would work with either administration so their platform goals could be accomplished.
The ticket of Chris Zimmerman and Andy Nelson, which received 3 percent of the vote, said they were disappointed with the results, but hope their message of streamlining student government will be heard by Norton/Masconoa and Becker/McCord.
"The student body president and vice president should have contact with the students daily," Nelson said. "Brooke and Brian have been too busy running and too busy in their jobs to talk to the students, and we think that's the most important."
Zimmerman said he was happy to win a majority of the votes in his dorm Fisher, and he intends to run for a student government office again.
"This was a test run... I look forward to the run-off because it's between two good tickets," Zimmerman said. "The Tribe has spoken."
Of the two remaining tickets, Holt Zeidler and Alison Henisey received 9 percent of the vote, capturing a majority of the votes in Keough Hall, where Zeidler is hall president. Maureen Gottlieb and Victoria Fetterman received 1 percent of the vote.
The run-off election will be held Thursday. Student can vote in their residence halls or off-campus students can vote outside the DeBartolo computer lab from 9 to 11 a.m. and 1 to 4 p.m.
A run-off debate between Becker/McCord and Norton/Mascona will be Tuesday night in the Library Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. The candidates will be allowed to question each other.
All News Stories for Tuesday, February 13, 2001
