"I couldn't really be confident," said Grant Easterbrook '11, discussing last week's class council election in which he ran for President. "It's anyone's guess what will happen when you have four people running."
Easterbrook's concerns, however, were alleviated when the results of the senior Class Council elections were announced Sunday night, with Easterbrook winning the presidency for the second year in a row. The Orient Express predicted Easterbrook's victory on Sunday afternoon.
Easterbrook, who served as class council vice president for his first and sophomore years, won by a landslide, taking 167 of the 302 votes cast and beating out the second place candidate by 108 votes.
Ryan Jewett defeated Karl Nyagoni for vice president by a margin of 171 votes.
Jeff Cook and Andrew Baer, who both ran unopposed for Treasurer and BSG representative, respectively, round out the council.
Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) Treasurer Kyle Dempsey '11 was not surprised by the outcome of the election.
"In general, I feel like the elections were pretty much what I expected them to be," he said. "I think the main thing I would have liked to have seen was more candidates. There wasn't a whole lot to pick from."
With four candidates for president, two of whom had already served (Houston Kraft '11 was president his first and sophomore years), two for vice president and the other two candidates running unopposed, the number of options was low compared to past years.
Hillary Morin '11 was also pleased with the results, but noted that having two candidates who had already served made the decision more difficult.
"I think it's great that Grant won because I think he's been doing a great job," she said.
"I would've liked to see Greg [Tabak '11] win so that he could get an opportunity to lead too because Houston and Grant have already had a chance to lead the class in previous years," said Morin.
The elections, which were open for voting from September 24 at 8 a.m. until September 26 at 8 p.m., yielded a high percentage of voters compared to past years.
According to BSG President John Connolly '11, the 303 votes cast this year comprises an excellent turnout, accounting for approximately "67 percent turnout which is fantastic; national turnout in 2008 was 57 percent, so that's pretty good."
"I think it was the good presidential race at the top that really pulled it," he said.
Easterbrook's campaign centered around the financial aspects of senior year, primarily with saving money to enhance senior week.
"I manage money well," he said. "That's the biggest thing I want to focus on."
He also hopes to bring back senior nights in Portland, hire a photographer to document senior events and allow the class to select the sweatshirt design, among other activities.
Connolly is confident this will be a strong year for the class council.
"I'm sure Grant is going to do a great job," he said.
First year class council elections will be held this week.
The first year class has a solid showing of BSG hopefuls in the running, with five candidates gunning for president, four for vice president, four for treasurer and five for the two open BSG representative spots.
Campaigning for this weekend's election began Monday, September 27, and Connolly has been impressed so far.
"There's a lot of great campaigning going on for that election already," he said. "A lot of great posters."
However, Connolly also noted that BSG hopes campaigning will go further.
He said that the elections are strategically placed later in the semester to allot more time for the first years to get to know one another and hopefully make personal connections that go beyond candidacy statements and entertaining flyers.
Despite these accommodations, some first years still feel uneducated about BSG and expressed concern about the basis of students' votes.
First years Ben Brewster and Alex Marecki both felt that in the week approaching their class' first election, they were "not very educated" about the process or purpose of BSG.
They proposed getting the word out during one of the orientation meetings held in the first week of school.
"I'm not saying that I'd like more assemblies, but I feel like that's one way to get it out to everyone here," Marecki said.
"I'd never really heard of [BSG] until some people asked me to sign their petitions," Brewster added.
Megan Massa '14 is running for treasurer and expressed concerns about the reasoning behind voters' choices: "I kind of wish that it wasn't so much of a popularity contest but that's being idealistic because how else are you going to get the word out?"
Massa also suggested that the candidate statements in the Orient should be printed earlier to make them a more prominent factor than posters.
Connolly hopes, however, that class unity can be one of the primary tasks that the new council members assume responsibility over the course of the year.
He said that BSG will hold an orientation for the councils to get to know each other early on to facilitate the process.
Connolly is excited for both the first year and senior classes, as well as BSG as a whole.
"I'm looking forward to...all of them working together," Connolly said. "I think it's going to be great."
Voting for the first year elections will open today at 8 a.m. and will close Sunday at 8 p.m.