Marissa West and Michael Jefferson are the student body president and vice president elects for the 2012-2013 school year.
The West/Jefferson ticket defeated Justin McCorvey and Ariana Williams 729 – 610 in Tuesday’s run-off elections.
Jefferson, 19, a third-year environmental science student from Indianapolis, Ind, celebrated with his running mate West, 21, a fourth-year pharmacy student from Chicago.
“I’m overjoyed and just humbled. It is an extreme honor to serve the student body of Florida A&M University,” Jefferson said. “We’re thankful to everyone who voted not only just for us, for all those who came back and voted, it showed their commitment and love and loyalty to this wonderful place called FAMU.”
The Wiliams/McCorvey ticket congratulated the West/Jefferson ticket.
“It was a tough loss, but in every battle there has to be a winner and a loser. Marissa West and Michael Jefferson worked hard. We wish them the best of luck in leading the student body and look forward to helping the M&M administration,” said the McCorvey/Williams ticket.
The West/Jefferson ticket won the most votes among the three tickets in the original Feb. 22 election.
Run-off elections were delayed for 36 days as a result of appeals filed by Mccorvey/ Williams ticket and the Siders brothers tickets. The student Supreme Court did not meet quorum in order to hear the appeal cases for both tickets. This left the decision to the FAMU administration, including Dean Henry Kirby.
During Tuesday’s election, social networking sites such as Twitter and YouTube were buzzing with reports of an incident of an organization removing campaign material.
Some students were dissatisfied with results of the historic run-off elections.
“I feel both candidates are qualified but the Justin McCorvey and Ariana Williams ticket were more qualified for the position of SGA president and vice president, but we can’t change what the votes are,” said Craig Lightfoot, 20, a freshman business administration student from Tallahassee.