By a margin of just 27 votes, the Students' Party took over the leadership of LSA Student Government.
LSA-SG President-elect Lauren Shubow and Vice President-elect Geeta Bhatia captured the election that occured last Wednesday and Thursday, beating Michigan Party candidates Adam Schlifke and Yejide Peters.
Shubow and Bhatia received 930 votes in a race that left Schlifke and Peters with 903 votes.
Shubow said she was very excited and pleasantly surprised by the results.
"It was very close," Shubow said. "I think that was because we were both very qualified candidates."
Schlifke contended that the results of the election are carried by the Michigan Student Assembly president, vice president and representative elections that took place during the same two-day period. The Students' Party took the top two seats on MSA.
"The Michigan Party has won the election for the last four years," Schlifke said. "(In the past) whatever majority party won the MSA election, also won the LSA-SG election."
Schlifke said each year this pattern has followed suit.
"This year Mike and Olga won the (MSA) election by 300 votes and Lauren and Geeta only won by 30," Schlifke said. "I think in some respects people do not know about LSA-SG.
"I am not saying they did not work hard and that they do not deserve it," Schlifke said. "I just think a lot of stuff happens with parties. We had bad circumstances and that was the outcome."
The small margin between the parties is especially significant because of an increase in voting participation this year, said LSA-SG Election Director Pranav Patel.
"The numbers are definitely up," Patel said. "I'd say they are probably up by like a couple hundred (votes). Last year around 1,600 people voted, and this year it is in the ballpark of 2,000."
Schlifke said last year's LSA-SG group had many problems and he hopes the new leaders will acknowledge them.
"There were definitely a lot of problems on this year's government," Schlifke said. "A lot of people were not that involved, and a lot of people were not happy with that."
Shubow said she and Bhatia are ready to start implementing many of their new ideas for the government, including mid-term evaluations for instructors and student representation on academic department committees.
"We hope we can implement it as soon as fall semester," Shubow said.
JENNIFER BRADLEY-SWIFT/Daily
LSA Student Government President-elect Lauren Shubow and Vice President-elect Geeta Bhatia sit together yesterday. The two will take office in September.