The Associated Students Inc. president and vice president positions have been narrowed down to two candidates each, and the winner is set to be decided during a run-off election after spring break, as announced at the results ceremony on Friday.
The run-off election will be held between presidential candidates John Haberstroh and Stephen Thomas, and vice presidential candidates Diana Phan and Jonathon Bolin.
Students will be given the opportunity to vote for these four candidates again to determine the winner. Run-off elections will be held April 3-5.
Cal State Long Beach’s last run-off election for the presidential position was in 2007, and the last run-off election for the vice presidential position was in 2008.
Haberstroh said he was happy to have made it to the run-off elections.
“I can’t wait to get back out there,” Haberstroh said. “It’s really about getting the student body to vote.”
Thomas said that the journey is not over yet.
“I think there was a lot of qualified candidates and I want to thank everyone for their support,” Thomas said. “The issues that we have in the state of California are still alarming and it is vital that we have student advocates to fight that fight for us.”
Jose Espeleta won the treasurer position over Jordan Cattuzzo by 1.18 percent of the vote, which is equivalent to 106 students.
Espeleta said he wanted to thank all the students for believing in him. He also said he wanted to thank Cattuzzo for being a good competitor.
“I want to tell the students that everything I promised for next year, I will do,” Espeleta said.
A total of 4,869 students voted in this year’s election, which is 14.5 percent of the student body. Last year, 2,941 students voted in the elections.
The turnout was the highest in the history of CSULB.
The national average turnout for student elections is 10 percent.