In runoff, Cooper and Lee face new challenge of alerting voters

In an election season marred by controversy, candidates had to face a volley of complaints, hearings and, for two candidates, the prospect of disqualification.

But when the dust settled Feb. 17 and candidates Mary Cooper and Ian Lee moved into a runoff with 39 percent and 25 percent of the vote, respectively, they faced an entirely new challenge: informing students that an already drawn-out election wasn’t over just yet.

Tonight that end will come at last.

Both candidates said they talked to many students this week who didn’t know when the runoff election would take place. Voter turnout has traditionally dropped in runoff elections, with the 2009 election being the only exception since 2004.

“The biggest challenge of this runoff is getting students to know there’s a runoff,” Lee said. “Turnout for runoffs is always lower than the (general) election, but hopefully a good percentage of students will come back out and vote and have a stake in next year’s administration.”

Voting began at midnight and will stop at 10 p.m. Results will be announced in Carroll 111 at 10:30 p.m., said Andrew Phillips, chairman of the Board of Elections. The general election was held Feb. 8, but due to a series of lawsuits, results were announced nine days later at an impromptu meeting in the Pit.

The election results also brought with them a collection of creative write-in votes, including three for candidate Brooklyn Stephens’ horse and a second-place tie between UNC basketball player Kendall Marshall and Larry Drew II.

“It speaks to the need for someone like me who has been outside of student government for a year,” Cooper said. “People are ready to make fun of (student government) and make jokes, and that’s not the way it’s supposed to be at all.”

The first delay of results came after former Speaker of Student Congress Deanna Santoro filed a complaint against the board.

She claimed the board misinterpreted the Student Code by allowing Lee to campaign while serving as student body secretary. The complaint resulted in an injunction to delay the release of results.

A dip in voting occurred around 4 p.m., when the Student Supreme Court issued the injunction, before rising slightly later in the day. The complaint was dismissed Feb. 17 when the court ruled Santoro did not file the complaint within the 72-hour statute of limitations. The runoff was announced later that evening.

Former candidate Rick Ingram also went to trial the night before the general election. Cooper and Lee said Ingram’s campaign violated election law in a “malicious and harmful manner.”

The board voted not to disqualify Ingram due to a lack of evidence. He appeared on the ballot and received 18 percent of the vote, coming in third place.

Ingram said he would not endorse either runoff candidate.

“I’m giving it a lot of thought and I want to do what I think is right,” he said. “At this point, I’m not being swayed either way.”

Stephens received 14 percent of the vote and said she will also elect not to endorse either candidate.

“I believe students who voted for me should be able to make their own decisions about who they’re to vote for,” she said.

Two years ago, Jasmin Jones defeated Thomas Edwards in a runoff election for student body president after Edwards won a convincing 41 percent of the votes in a six-candidate general election.

In what the election losers called the “Jasmin Consensus,” Jones picked up everyone’s endorsement en route to the presidency.

Cooper and Lee both said they are not quite sure what to expect, but are excited nonetheless.

“It’s a toss up,” Lee said. “We both have great ideas. We’ve both run really great campaigns.”

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