By Razmik Cañas & Angelica Hernandez
As raindrops fell early Thursday morning, Demi Wack stood in front of the Henry Madden Library to give one last push to students to come out and vote for her for president of Fresno State students.
Dressed in a white Bulldog poncho just hours before polls closed at noon, Wack had thought to herself that she did not want to lose the Associated Students, Inc. presidential election by a few votes. She told a Collegian staffer that she wanted to win by trying her best.
She won by 707 votes, according to official numbers announced Thursday afternoon in the University Student Union’s Bulldog Zone.
Presidential candidate Sebastian Wenthe came in second place, Corey Miracle in third and Carter Pope II in fourth.
Wack, current vice president of external affairs, celebrated her presidential victory by hugging her replacement — Primavera Martinez.
Both ran together on the slate “all4students” with Ben Warmerdam running for vice president of finance and Hunter Sansom for senator of the College of Arts and Humanities. They also won their positions, according to official results announced Thursday by ASI.
But there was one result that prompted the loudest cheers from audience members.
The New University Student Union referendum was approved with 67 percent of students voting in favor of the $60 million project. The “yes” vote came on the heels of a controversial campaign. Students stood for the project while others stood firmly against it. It also came as a similar project, the Bold New U, failed last year.
Juan Guzman, graduate assistant for the USU board, said he was extremely happy with the results.
“I think this is going to benefit so many students,” Guzman said Thursday. “That was the intent of this project from the beginning. To build a better future for other students. I can’t wait to see how this building is going to impact all those future bulldogs.”
Guzman said students led this year’s efforts to inform the student body about the New USU.
“I really think this was the voice of the students,” Guzman said. “In the past few days I was just trying to get info out to students for them to have the facts when casting that vote. I think that was really successful because of my team and all the students that worked on this.”
Guzman thanked voters and said that he believed they made the right decision.
“This building has served for 50 years,” Gomez said, motioning to the current University Student Union around him, “And hopefully this new building will serve for 50 more (years).”
ASI also announced Thursday that this year’s election brought out the highest voter turnout among students. Compared to last year’s 14.18 percent of students who voted, 21.39 percent of students voted in this year’s election.
Here are the results of the 2018 ASI Elections. The numbers were provided by ASI as tallied by the League of Women voters.
Fee referendum for New Student Union: Yes
Yes: 2728 votes (67%)
No: 1347 votes (33%)
President: Demi Wack
Vice President of External Affairs: Primavera L Martinez
Vice President of Finance: Ben R Warmerdam
College of Arts and Humanities: Hunter Sansom
Craig School of Business: Alondra Salazar
College of Health and Human Services: Nour Basharaheel
Jordan College of Ag Sciences and Technology: Jacqueline S. Taylor
Kremen School of Education: Alexandra Chavez
Lyles College of Engineering: Michael K. Merzoian
College of Science and Mathematics: Lemuel Vince S. Rivera
College of Social Sciences: Excel Espino
Senators At-Large: Marisa N. Chavez, Jordan V. Cody, Claire D. Copher, Bryce Johnson, Elias J. Karam, Sarid A. Morales, Ruby Muniz, Cam Patterson, Baltripat Singh, Elizabeth Rocha Zuniga