Weinberg juniors Nehaarika Mulukutla and Rose Gambrah have been officially elected as ASG president and vice president for the 2017-2018 school year. The two ran uncontested and garnered 76.84 percent of the votes, or 687 votes. 207 people, or 23.15 percent of voters, voted no confidence, according to Election Commissioner Shayna Servillas.
"I'm really excited and honored to actually make a huge difference," Mulukutla said in a Facebook message to NBN. "What we do in office is the only thing that matters now."
Turnout this year was lower than usual, especially compared to last year's record turnout – when over 50 percent of eligible undergraduate voters participated – compared to the 894 students who voted this year. Last year, winners Christina Cilento and Macs Vinson garnered 4,060 votes.
"Last year's unusually high turnout is likely a result of a more controversial election, while I would attribute this year's low turnout to a single platform," Servillas said in an email. "However, I'm excited about the students who did vote, because demonstrating support or lack of support for a candidate is part of an important role ASG elections play in the conversation between students and the administration, especially in the context of student discontent surrounding campus culture on sexual assault."
Mulukutla and Gambrah's campaign focused largely on issues of mental health and making campus more inclusive for all students. They also hope to change the University's alcohol policy, and are currently gathering student signatures on a letter to Vice President of Student Affairs, Patricia Telles-Irvin, about how Northwestern will handle sexual assault cases going forward.
This story was updated at 7:40 p.m. to include a statement from ASG Election Commissioner Shayna Servillas. This story was updated again on April 4 at 12:10 p.m. to correct an error in voter turnout. Mulukutla and Gambrah received 76.84 percent of the vote, not 76.4. NBN regrets the error.