In a close second round of elections, Director of Union Affairs Jason Gray '10 won the race for Student Union president with 49.86 percent of the vote last Tuesday. Gray defeated Deputy Treasurer Justin Kang '09 by 2.67 percentage points, according to information provided by elections commissioner Zachary Pyle '09. "It was by far the dirtiest round of the elections I have seen," chief of elections for the first round Zachary Pyle '09 reported at the Senate meeting this Sunday, referring to the entire first round.

Gray received 693 votes, 37 more than Kang, who received 47.19 percent of the vote. Forty-one voters abstained, representing 2.95 percent. Of 3,249 eligible voters, 1,390 students voted in the presidential race, a participation rate of 42.78 percent.

Gray had finished six votes shy of winning the presidential race with 49.64 percent of the vote in the first round, in which candidates who receive more than 50 percent of the vote win the election in a "mandate." But Kang, who received 39.78 percent of the vote in round one, made the second round much tighter.

Village Quad Senator Michael Kerns '09 won the race for vice president over Finance Board member Jordan Rothman '09 with 47.66 percent of the vote, coming out to 671 votes. Rothman received 592 votes, 42.05 percent of the vote. In the race, 145 voters, or 10.3 percent, abstained.

The new F-Board members elected last Tuesday are Senator for the Class of 2009 Yuki Hasegawa, Julian Olidort '11 and Chief of Staff in the Office of the Treasurer Jahfree Duncan '09. Current F-Board member Emily Moignard '09 was reelected.

"I'm excited; I'm proud; I'm thankful for everyone who showed so much support and was there for me and was there for what we can do with the Student Union and the ways in which we can transform the University," Gray said. "It was a good race, a great campaign."

Among Gray's first tasks will be to help manage the transition between Union administrations and form the new executive board, he said.

"We need to help pass the financial amendments [to the Union constitution] and the Student Bill of Rights referendum [in round two]," he said.

He added that his administration would reach out to different members of the community and organizations to better understand what they want from the Student Union. "I think this is a great opportunity to improve our University, I think we have a lot we can do, we have to get the right team together so we can do it as effectively as possible; that's what I'm going to be focusing on right now," Gray said.

In an e-mail to the Justice, Kang wrote that he was humbled by the enormous support he received throughout the election process.

"Next year will be an exciting one, filled with great promise to positively transform the Student Union and also Brandeis University. Jason Gray and all the other newly elected officials will do an excellent job," Kang wrote.

"I was extremely excited to hear that I would have the opportunity to serve for the coming year," Kerns said about his election. A slightly larger number of students voted in the vice presidential race than the presidential one, with 1,408 of 3,249 eligible students voting for a participation rate of 43.34 percent.

According to Pyle, the election entailed "by far the largest number of complaints" that included a "huge number of very serious allegations." Based on his experience with this election, Pyle said he thought the election rules and the limited resources available to candidates had become outdated at at time when some candidates used text messages to campaign. The commission restricted that practice for the final election in an e-mail to candidates.

Pyle suggested that an "attitude problem" existed among some Union members with regard to elections. He said the commission had heard reports of candidates spending hours going around campus trying to catch opponents breaking election rules. "I've heard rumors [of students] going around Shapiro looking for people to run against candidates they don't particularly like," he said. The campaigns had also included "troubling attacks on people's characters" and also highlighted the question of campaign assistance, he said. "The size of campaigns has grown exponentially," Pyle said. That fact, he said, complicated elections rule 5d establishing a "contestable presumption" that a candidate approves all actions by his or her campaign workers.

Later during the meeting, Union Secretary Nelson Rutrick '09 announced that he had made a few adjustments to the elections rules as chief of elections for the second round, including allowing text messaging.

Before the primary round, Rutrick had received a notation from the elections commission as a candidate for the vice presidency for violating law 1d of the election rules, which forbids libelous statements. Pyle had said at the time that the commission gave out a few warnings throughout the election, but he declined to provide any further details.

According to Rutrick's website, the notation stemmed from statements he made in which he criticized his opponents for being part of a partisan culture existing in the Senate. On his Web site, Rutrick writes that the commission criticized that statement because Rothman was not a senator. At the Senate meeting, Rutrick emphasized that the rule about libelous and slanderous statements still existed, and had expanded to include offensive statements. Both Pyle and Rutrick emphasized that negative campaigning plays an important role when candidates legitimately criticize Union members for not performing their duties.