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Young Edges Johnson by 30 Votes
By Brook Corwin
and Katy Nelson
Staff Writers
It was now or never for Justin Young on
Tuesday night, and it all came down to 30 votes.
After four weeks of campaigning, this year’s
student body president election was decided by
the slimmest margin in recent UNC history, giv
ing Young the presidency with 50.3 percent of the
5,081 votes cast in the runoff contest between
Young and Eric Johnson.
Young said the 10 seconds it
took for Board of Elections
Chairman Jeremy Tuchmayer
to announce the results lasted
an eternity - an eternity that
ended in a visibly over
whelmed Young falling for
ward onto the desk.
“I couldn’t believe it,”
Young said. “I just could not
stand up. I could not move.”
Young did not need to move,
as an avalanche of supporters
quickly enveloped him.
Johnson smiled as the results
were announced but soon had
tears welling in his eyes as he
was consoled by his campaign
manager, Tim Nelson.
Johnson’s key concern was
his loyal campaign staff, whom
he immediately rallied for an
impromptu private meeting.
“The thing I’ll always
remember about this campaign
is that I got to meet such an
amazing bunch of people,”
Johnson said. “The way every
body came together and busted
their tails was just unbelievable.
Just unbelievable.”
One hour after the 10:15
p.m. announcement, Young
said he was still recovering from
the news.
“I don’t know what to say.
I’m just breathing right now,” Young said.
Young’s come-from-behind win came in the
final hours before the polls closed Tuesday night.
Singer, Dimmling Clinch Senior Class Offices
Senior Class President and
Vice President-elect Ben
Singer and Ursula Dimmling
hope to unite the class of 'O2.
By Scon Brittain
Staff Writer
After four weeks of hard campaign
ing and many months of planning, the
race for senior class president came to a
close in the runoff elections held
Tuesday.
Ben Singer
and Ursula
Dimmling
were declared
the winners
after grabbing
749 of the
1,248 votes
cast, beating
out Josh
Baylin and
[Ben Singer/
Ursula Dimmling 749
mm
Eugene Kim, who captured 499 votes.
The results were announced by
Board of Elections Chairman Jeremy
Tuchmayer to a crowded room full of
people anxious to hear the outcome.
After Singer’s team was declared the.
winner, he exhaled a sigh of relief and
hugged his running mate before shaking
hands with his opponents.
“We are so very excited right now,”
Singer said.
“We are confident that we are sup
posed to be here.”
His partner was equally enthused
about their victory and said she looks
forward to going into office.
“We are so excited and very enthusi
astic,” Dimmling said. “We want to
unite the class and make it an awesome
He was trailingjohnson in last Tuesday’s election
results, as well as in the 10 a.m. returns in
Tuesday’s runoff election.
Young credited his personalized approach and
provocative multimedia campaign as the differ
ence in the tight election. “People were saying
that the candidates were similar, and that was
reflected in the results. You had to stand out
somehow.”
Young’s campaign manager, Matt Jones, said
that Young stood out with an innovative cam-
s*% M
DTH/SEFTON IPOCK
to take some time to re-evaluate. “I’m going to
take some time out and figure out what my pri
orities are before I leave this place,” he said.
I
DTH/MIKE MESSIER
Senior Class President-elect Ben Singer and Vice President-elect Ursula Dimmling share a hug
in celebration of their 749-499 victory Tuesday night over Josh Baylin and Eugene Kim.
year for everyone.”
Baylin said that while he was not
pleased with the results, he was not dis
couraged by the defeat.
“I think we’re disappointed, but it’s
certainly not going to stop us from mov
ing on,” Baylin said.
Kim agreed with his running mate,
saying he was excited about the number
of votes they did receive.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.
Theodore Roosevelt
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
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paign style, which was
capped off by Young
climbing atop the roof of
the Undergraduate
Library in the Pit during
Tuesday’s rush hour.
“Students have
responded to our creative
message,"Jones said. “We
kept it fresh; we kept it
new. We were able to
attract students who do not
normally go out and vote.
“People got to see a part
of my personality that was
real. People could connect
with that,” Young said of
his media spin.
Johnson agreed that the
campaigns had reached a
new level. “I’m telling you,
we raised the bar,” he said
to Young moments before
the results were
announced.
Young extended his
congratulations to Johnson
for a hard-fought cam
paign, and he left the door
open for Johnson’s
involvement in his admin
istration. “Eric will contin
ue to do great things. He’s
committed to making
UNC a better a place,”
Young said.
Johnson said he needed
Lee Conner, former Graduate and
Professional Student Federation president and
1996 student body president candidate, said the
election proves that every ballot counts.
“If 16 people had changed their vote, Eric
would have won,” Conner said.
“You’ve got to feel bad for Eric - what a tough
“I think historically that losers tend to
feel sad after they lose, and that sums up
how I feel right now,” Kim said.
“We jumped a good 200 some odd
votes (since the last election), and we
feel good about that. The people have
spoken.”
With 1,248 votes cast, many people
participated in the runoff election.
“We were really surprised at the num
A Capitol Idea
Hundreds of UNC-system students
gathered in Raleigh to lobby
state legislators. See Page 3
DTH/MARGO KNIGHT
Student Body President-elect Justin Young (above) reacts to the announcement of his win Tuesday night.
Eric Johnson (left) gets a hug from one of Young's supporters after losing the election by just 30 votes.
ber of voters who turned out for the
election,” Singer said.
“Josh and Eugene were very good
candidates and ran a great campaign,
but we were excited about the margin of
our victory.”
Baylin said he was extremely proud
of the way he and Kim ran their bid for
office.
“We were 100 percent up-front with
way to go.”
Young is aware of the tightness of this election
and said he hopes that students will be support
ive of his election, despite his narrow margin.
Young said that when he called his father
Tuesday night to announce the good news, his
father said, “Uh oh, recount.”
all of the voters,” Baylin said.
“That was the most important thing
that we did.”
Kim expressed his interest in contin
uing to help people and making the
University better even though he did
not get elected to office.
The new senior class officers said
they are looking forward to taking office
and working for those who had elected
them.
“The first thing we are going to do
when we get in office is choose a diverse
selection of senior class marshals so we
can work together as a team,”
Dimmling said. “We want to branch out
and get the opinions of all seniors. We
want to know what they want us to do
for them.”
Dimmling said she had plans of cele
brating their victory by partying with
those who helped make it happen.
“I think we’re all going to hang out
here with some people from our cam
paign staff,” Dimmling said. “The best
thing is that we get to sleep in tomor
row, and then it’s back to class.”
Singer and Dimmling ran on a plat
form of having a set of risers at basket
ball games exclusively for seniors, more
on-campus senior parking, improving
the current University career services
and more social interaction within the
class.
Singer said he plans on working dili
gently for the seniors to make it their
best year at UNC.
“We want people to know that we are
going to work for our promises,” Singer
said.
“We are not going to let anyone
down.”
The University Editor can be reached
at udesk@unc.edu.
No More Sun
Today: Cloudy, 61
Thursday: Showers, 39
Friday: Clouds, 59
Wednesday, February 21, 2001
Young recalled laughing and saying, “No, dad,
this is Chapel Hill, not Florida.”
For those 30 votes, Young said he wanted to
thank every single one of his supporters. “I want
to thank everyone who smiled at me, who said
See SBP, Page 6
Brown to
Fill GPSF
Presidency
Mikisha Brown says she will
work to foster discussion of
graduate and professional
students' chief concerns.
By Rachel Clarke
Staff Writer
Mikisha Brown’s active campaigning
led her to a 140-vote victory Tuesday
night in the runoff election for Graduate
and Professional Student Federation
president.
Of the 264
votes cast,
Brown, a health
education grad
uate student,
received 202
and Shaun
Hartley
received 62.
Both appeared
as write-in can-
didates on the Feb. 13 ballot but neither
garnered a majority of the votes last
week. “I’m excited," Brown said. “I think
it’s an opportunity to get students talking
about issues and concerns. The first thing
I’m going to work on is trying to fulfill
Senate positions for the departments that
don’t have senators.”
Brown’s platform, which she e-mailed
See GPSF, Page 6