This year’s campaign for the Student Government Association president and vice president is headed to a run-off election, as juniors Joe Breslin and Steve Cronin narrowly missed the 50 percent mark in last week’s general election. Of the 2,458 votes cast, they captured 1,226, or 49.87 percent – just three votes away from majority.

Their closest competitors, juniors Brian Collins and Paul Vitale, received 419 votes. The tiny .03 percent margin does not allow for a decided victory, and the two tickets must go head to head in a run-off election to determine an official winner.

“It is unfortunate that the election must go to a run-off when it was so close, but it will be exciting next week,” junior John Fiedler said. “I was very impressed with how many votes Joe and Steve did get.”

The results of the election were announced on April 6 at 1 p.m. About 40 students, including all of the presidential and senatorial hopefuls, gathered around the Oreo while Tim McGovern, Joe Mordini and Jennifer Guarino of the SGA election commission announced the outcome.

Of the remaining candidates, Ricardo Ruiz and Henry Watson received 385 votes, Gretchen “Molly” Barrett and Abolhassan “Hass” Sadighi received 236 and Sean Carver and Matthew Carroll received 192.

After the results were read, the disappointed candidates expressed respectful and positive sentiments about SGA’s future.

“Obviously we are disappointed,” Sadighi said, “but we are still definitely going to be involved. We look forward to seeing the campaign from the outside and told all of the run-off candidates that we would be willing to help.”

The run-off election will be held on April 19 through noon on April 20.

Although they are down by a large margin, Collins and Vitale are not ready to throw in the towel just yet.

“Honestly, I am relieved,” Vitale said. “I was so nervous. I know we are down by a lot, but it is still a new race. The truth is, no matter who wins, the Villanova students will benefit.”

Also announced last Tuesday were the newly elected senators for each college.

Safeer Bhatti and Anthony Albanese will be the Arts and Sciences Senators.

Catherine Lee, Javier Rodriquez and Edwin Xiao were elected from Commerce and Finance, and Regina DeCristofaro will represent the Nursing School.

There is still no senator for the Engineering school because no student ran for the position. Additional senators will be appointed by SGA at a later date.

According to the election commission, this has been a strong campaign year overall, full of spirit, ideas and few sanctions. They commented that in past years, there have been conflicts and last minute allegations that delayed election results, but this year was different.

“It has been a positive campaign,” said Mordini. “The candidates have conducted themselves with a great deal of respect and sparked good debate.”