It all came down to one ballot.
A long, tense night ended just before 7 a.m. when the AMS election team announced the results: team RWS beat ACH by a single vote in the second round of a preferential balloting recount, 2,351 to 2,350.
But for President-elect Talia Radcliffe, Vice-President (Operations)-elect Ken Wang and Vice-President (University Affairs)-elect Stephanie St. Clair, the results were worth the wait.
The house erupted in jubilated screams as the three teammates hugged, exhausted and shaky.
Wang stood on the couch in the living room, bouncing up and down and repeating the same phrase again and again.
“Holy shit—this is unbelievable.”
He was ed by Radcliffe and St. Clair to chants of “Speech! Speech!”
“I’m so speechless right now,” Radcliffe said. “I don’t even really know what to say. I’m so overwhelmed by how many people are standing here.”
The exceptionally close race necessitated a full recount and dragged vote-counting out to almost 12 hours after polls closed.
“There was a less than one per cent margin once it got to the second round of preferential,” said Chief Returning Officer Joanna Adams around 2 a.m.
“It’s very, very, very, like, dead-heat close.”
Adams said she was happy with the 40 per cent voter turnout.
“We’re really proud of it,” she said.
The team spent the night with friends and ers in Radcliffe’s house, adorned with RWS-themed yellow accessories. A “voterws.ca” stamp made its way around the crowded house, with friends and campaign volunteers branding each other.
Daniel Chung, ArtSci ’09, volunteered at RWS’s booth during the campaign. He said he thought the election could go in any direction.
“It seems like anything can happen really.” Around 2 a.m. the candidates heard about the full recount. As the hookah came out and the party died down, a few close friends and ers hung around and watched The Princess Bride while waiting for the results.
Radcliffe said she felt good about the campaign.
“We ran the campaign exactly how we wanted,” she said, adding that the team had “really bold stances on a lot of things.”
Chris Gusen, the team’s campaign manager, said he thinks the campaign went well.
“I’m kind of shell-shocked because of lack of sleep,” he said. “It was definitely an amazing time.”
St. Clair paused to thank the team’s ers.
“Thanks to everyone for not forgetting to vote. Because apparently if even one of you had forgotten, then we’d be fucked.”
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