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Quintanilla, UH 4 U sweep SGA election

Bell and Minor headed for vice presidential runoff

By Geronimo Rodriguez
Senior Staff Writer

UH 4 U's Jon Quintanilla will head the 41st Student Government Association administration after claiming 51.6 percent of the 2,820 votes for SGA president in the SGA general election.

Quintanilla trumped three presidential candidates including Student Voice's Heron Re'chard Thomas, who garnered 38.5 percent of the vote.

The election is the first since 2001 in which a Student Voice candidate did not win the presidency.

"The student voice has spoken," Quintanilla said after the election results were announced March 12 in the University Center Underground's World Affairs Lounge. "This shows that students have decided to stand up against unethical politics."

Quintanilla's newly formed party won 19 Senate seats and Student Voice, which pummeled the opposition in recent years, took the other 10.

None of the four vice presidential candidates got more than 50 percent of the votes, so the two candidates with the most votes -- UH 4 U's Matt Bell and Student Voice's Alysia Minor -- will face one another in a runoff election Wednesday and Thursday, the SGA Election Commission said.

Bell received 1,305 votes, 46.6 percent of the 2,799 votes cast for vice president. Minor received 1,245 votes, or 44.5 percent.

The student regent position was decided by one vote. Student Voice's Laura M. Salinas received 1,262 votes to retain her position as regent, narrowly beating UH 4 U's David Williams. Salinas received 45.8 percent of the 2,758 votes for student regent, a position that does not require a candidate to receive more than 50 percent of the vote.

Although his seven-member party failed to gain a seat in the Senate, Cougar Delegates presidential candidate Michael Graves said Quintanilla has the skills to deliver a productive year in the student government.

"It'll definitely be a step up from last year," Graves, a College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences SGA senator, said. Graves got 177 votes for SGA president.

Cougar United presidential candidate Russell Payne, who tallied 102 votes, said the election became a fight to bring down Student Voice, "and my party just wasn't ready to do that."

The newly elected SGA administration will take office April 1.

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