Siobhan Stewart wins 2012 MSU presidential election

47 votes have made Siobhan Stewart the MSU president-elect.

The fourth-year anthropology student won the presidential election in the early hours of Feb. 3, defeating competitors Chris Erl, David Campbell, Mukhtar Galan and Alex Ramirez.

“I don’t know what to think right now. I can’t process this right now,” said Stewart, clearly overwhelmed by the emotion of the win. The president-elect was contacted at her student house, joined by members of her team.

Stewart won with 3,119 votes in the fourth round of voting after Ramirez, Galan and Erl were eliminated. Her total was 47 more than Campbell’s 3,072 in the final round. The results were as follows:

1. Siobhan Stewart
2. David Campbell
3. Chris Erl
4. Mukhtar Galan
5. Alex Ramirez

Stewart had 1,985 votes in the first round, while Campbell had 1,719. Erl had 1,214, Galan had 929 and Ramirez had 704.

There were 512 total abstentions over the four rounds.

“I just want to say thank you so much to everyone that had a part in voting this year,” she said. ”I will do everything in my power to make sure next year is an amazing year for students.”

For her plans tonight, she said she would ”try to digest everything that happened. I don’t think I’m going to sleep.”

6,073 voters turned out for the election, the largest total all-time for the MSU and the largest percentage (33.4%) since 1998.

Visit the Sil's presidential elections blog to see how it all unfolded.