The slew of campaign posters spread across campus just got a bit sparser as three candidates for Dixie State University Student Association executive council positions bowed out in primary elections.
Primaries, held from Monday to Tuesday night, narrowed the field of the three positions up for grabs — student body president, vice president of academics and vice president of clubs — from three candidates each to two. Now the last push begins, and the election’s final results will be announced Friday.
In the student body president category, Matt Devore headed the field with 676 votes, 417 votes more than the second-place candidate, Kayla Coolbear, who finished with 259 votes and will also advance to final elections. Mike Long received 84 and will not advance.
Warren Anderson and Sarah Ramaker survived the vice president of academics primary with 505 and 360 votes garnered respectively. Out of the race is Leah Romney with 157 ballots checked.
Vice president of clubs incumbent Brogan Crockett fell to Tim Long by a count of 512 to 390 but will get a second chance to maintain his position in final elections. Whittni O’Brien took third with 115.
Chief Justice Alex Lambson, a senior computer science major from Orem, said the number of primary ballots cast surprised him; since he’s been around, primary votes were typically between 400 and 500, he said.
“This is the highest turn out I’ve ever seen while being at Dixie,” he said. “We’re close to 1,000 votes on just primaries … The candidates have been working hard.”
Student Body President Gregory J. Layton, a senior English major from Cottonwood Heights, said this year’s candidates can learn from primaries as he did in his close primary last year.
“I think everybody expected me to blow out the competition, but [the primary] did motivate me to definitely push for those last votes,” he said.
From now until Friday, Layton said candidates who truly want to represent DSU students must reach out to as many students as possible by knocking on doors and other techniques.
Students can vote for final elections from 10 a.m. Wednesday to noon Friday. The DSUSA will set up booths at the Diagonal, and students can also vote at dixie.edu/elections. The election debate is set for Wednesday at noon in the Gardner Center.