Candidates fight their shock

Many students were awe-struck Wednesday after no candidate received a majority of votes in the two-ticket race for senior class president and vice president.

“We were really astonished,” said Heather Sidden, chairwoman of the Board of Elections, calling the results an “unprecedented occurrence.”

“It was close all day long, and we worried about no candidate getting the majority,” she said.

Both campaigns will receive $75 in additional funding as they vie for the support of rising seniors before Tuesday’s runoff election.

Madison Perry and Whit Walker, candidates for senior class president and vice president, respectively, said Wednesday that they are enthusiastic about their second wave of campaigning.

Walker was especially visible Wednesday, dancing in the Pit and yelling campaign slogans at passers-by.

Perry said that his campaign will consist of increasingly noisy and animated “attention grabbers” but that he understands the “line between making jokes of ourselves and showing enthusiasm.”

Bobby Whisnant, Perry’s competition for senior class president, said that he was shocked and perplexed by the election results but that he’s relieved that he and vice presidential candidate Jenny Peddycord are still in the race.

Whisnant said his campaign did the best it could during the first round but that the problem was voter turnout.

“We’ve had a very, very good strategy,” Whisnant said. “The downside is we had many supporters that did not vote because they were overconfident that we’d win.”

Perry and Walker received 915 votes for office, just one more than Whisnant and Peddycord’s 914. Sixteen write-in votes in the competition left neither campaign with a majority.

Whisnant said he plans to focus on encouraging supporters to vote and maintaining a visible presence on campus. “We’re definitely going to do it big Monday and Tuesday,” he said.

Former student body presidential candidate Tom Jensen endorsed the Whisnant ticket Tuesday.

“I think that Bobby and Jenny represent the diversity of the senior class and have really good ideas for bringing people together for a high -quality senior year,” Jensen said.

Perry said that during the final week of campaigning he wants students to get to know him and his running mate on a more personal level.

“Most people are aware of our platform, but now we want people to know who we are,” Perry said.

No student body campaign will be allowed to set up a table in the center of the Pit during the next week, Sidden said. The Board of Elections had reserved the area, but Student Union officials overbooked the Pit, she said.

Neither ticket would reveal the surprise activities planned for the final week of campaigning.

“We want to keep the cat in the bag a bit,” Perry said. “We’ll have surprises. People will definitely want to stop and see who we are.”

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.