Junior Keizra Mecklai has been elected Duke Student Government President after a race against fellow junior Tucker Albert, with 60.67 percent of the total votes.
A total of 2,531 students, or roughly 30 percent of the Duke student body, voted in the election. Mecklai received 1,536 votes, Albert received 929 votes and write-in candidates received 66 votes. There were no candidate complaints during the vote-counting process, and results were officially released an hour after the polls closed at 10 p.m. Tuesday.
Sophomore John Guarco was elected DSG executive vice president with 63.19 percent of the votes, defeating sophomore Shaker Samman.
Junior Nikhil Gavai was elected Student Organization Funding Committee chair with 55.7 percent of the votes after an instant runoff, with sophomore Sanford Morton receiving the other 44.3 percent. Sophomore Apara Sivaraman was eliminated in the instant runoff.
“Obviously, I was overwhelmed and surprised and excited and I feel ready to take on the challenges in the coming year,” Mecklai said after receiving the results.
Mecklai ran on a platform focused on the University’s sexual assault policy, housing guidelines and DSG transparency—ideas she worked on as vice president of equity and outreach. She will serve a one-year term as DSG president.
“The first things I want to work on are working with the new curriculum which I talked about a lot during the election, [in addition to] cooperating with the Women’s Center and Office of Institutional Equity to talk about sexual assault policies going into the coming year and lastly working with Duke administration and [current DSG President] Lavanya Sunder,” she said.
Albert expressed support for Mecklai after the results of the race were announced.
“I'm very sad to hear that I won't be able to represent the student body next year, but I know that Keizra will do a great job,” he said.
Mecklai is the fourth consecutive female DSG president—meaning that current juniors will spend the entirety of their undergraduate careers with a female president in office.
Mecklai said the campaign was well-run and fair on both sides, adding that she looks forward to working with Albert in the future.
“I thought it was a very clean campaign and we definitely developed a campaign camaraderie that I loved,” Mecklai said. “I’m excited to work with him in whatever capacity he remains involved in DSG.”
Candidates of the EVP and SOFC races had similarly positive remarks about their respective campaigns.
"It was a great race. I'm glad it was a civil campaign, and I thank Shaker for being a great running mate," Guarco said, noting that he plans to focus both on internal and external affairs to better serve the student body. "I gave it my all, and I’m very grateful it worked out."
Samman said he looked forward to seeing Guarco's approach to the role.
"I can't say I'm not disappointed in the outcome. I would have loved to serve as EVP, but I can't wait to see him in the role him next year," Samman said, adding that he hopes to be elected to the Senate next year to continue his involvement with DSG. "It was a classy race, he was a great candidate."
Voter turnout dropped significantly from last year—with 30 percent of students voting as compared to last year's 58 percent, which came in an election with the much-discussed 40 Percent Plan amendment on the ballot. This year's turnout also dipped slightly from that of prior years, 33 percent in 2013 and 39 percent in 2012.
“I posted on as many social medias as possible, but turnout remained mostly the same [as the Young Trustee election],” said attorney general Maxime Fischer-Zernin, a senior.
Aleena Karediya contributed reporting.
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