After three days of student voting, third-year College student Joe Bilby captured the Student Council presidency, defeating Brendan Dignan, also a third-year College student, by 661 votes in a run-off election.
Bilby won with 1,444 votes to Dignan's 783, with 12 percent of the student body voting in the election. In last year's run-off elections, 7 percent of the student body voted.
Council bylaws mandated the runoff because Bilby did not defeat Dignan by at least 5 percentage points in last week's regular election. Bilby received 1,054 votes and Dignan received 953 in the regular election.
Bilby said he has many short- and long- term goals for Council.
"I'm excited to begin working in the interests of students as soon as I can," he said. "I want to start by carrying through some things Taz [Turner] started like work on keeping Clemons open for 24 hours and developing plans for the new Student Activities Building."
Bilby said some of his other goals include renewing the Fishbowl Conversations, which were open forums held in 1998 for students to discuss issues such as affirmative action and also to continue discussions on parking and transportation and other issues that affect the student body.
Bilby said he plans to meet with student leaders from a variety of organizations in order to get an idea of their needs from Council. He also said he wants to involve all electoral candidates in Council, including those that did not win their races.
"It's been a long, tiring race and I hope that the other candidates will be willing to help implement their ideas," he said.
Bilby said he is appreciative of his friends' efforts because their help with the campaign was vital to his victory.
"It is great to have so many friends who helped out ... . I'm grateful for their enthusiasm and help," he said.
Executive Vice President-elect Matt Madden said he is pleased with the election results.
"It was a well-run race between two great candidates and I look forward to working with Joe and the rest of Student Council next year," Madden said.
Dignan also said that Bilby will make a great president.
"Joe's service to the University has been great and he'll do an incredible job next year. U.Va. is very lucky to have him," Dignan said.
Council President Taz Turner said he is pleased with his successor and has confidence in his abilities.
"Congratulations to Joe. I look forward to seeing what he will accomplish as president," Turner said.
Bilby is from Louisville, Ky. He is a Jefferson and Echols Scholar enrolled in the political and social thought program. He also is a history major.
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