A run-off will determine the next King's SBP, 23 amendments pass

Financial District, NEW YORK--Following a speech by Amity Shlaes in the City Room today, Dean of Students, David Leedy announced that there will be a run-off for Student Body President between Reese Evans and Tyler Hinsley. This means candidate Fermin Villalpando has been edged out of the race. He received 17.3 percent of the student body’s vote, compared to Hinsley’s 37.2 percent and Evans’s 45.5 percent.

If tallies had been released while the voting process was still underway, students would have seen a less competitive race. Reese Evans’s vote nearly reached the critical mass of 51 percent; he held 48 percent of the student body vote at one point on Tuesday, Leedy said in an interview. “Then, halfway through the voting cycle, we saw a shift,” Leedy said.

In the same vote, the 23 new amendments to the Constitution passed, including the new Cabinet position: Director of Spiritual Life. "Getting the 23 amendments passed was more satisfying than winning Student Body President," said Student Body President, Maxine Fileta.

Fileta explained that this is because she sees the amendments as a joint effort of the Council and the fruition of the Council's goal of becoming a more credible governing body.

Seventy percent of the student body--305 students out of approximately 500--participated in the election. Last year, participation hit roughly 80 percent, a soaring improvement from the 67 percent recorded in 2013.

President Gregory Thornbury noted that, compared to participation at the average college, “70 percent is a phenomenal number,” and said he hoped those statistics would “repeat themselves” in the vote now underway.

Leedy, the adviser for the House of Churchill, said that a run-off between two members of the same House was unprecedented at King’s. He found this especially noteworthy, because, “in the past, the House of Reagan has not fared well [in SBP elections] due to the perception that they’re all about their House.”

Nathan Deardorff (‘15) belongs to the same House as the candidates. He said of the “inter-Reagan race” for SBP, “now I don’t have anything to worry about." House loyalty had no part in his decision-making process, Deardorff clarified. He believed that as a sophomore Villalpando was simply too young to hold office.

Alluding to the rumors that Lucy LeFever, the junior who organized the King's Day of Service, had been planning to run for president, Deardorff added, “I would have voted for Lucy LeFever in a heartbeat."

Voting is open and will close for a second and final time at midnight on Thursday.