Undergraduate Student Government (USG) presidential candidate Mikaela Bautista and her running mate Emma Fallon won the presidential election Tuesday night, beating out three other tickets. After disqualifications and drop-outs, all 12 remaining candidates in the senatorial election on the same ballot earned a spot on USG’s senate.
The all-female team campaigned to provide opt-in ChatGPT+ accounts for all students.
“ChatGPT is a new technology that is being so quickly integrated into society, even at the university level, a lot of my professors are already bringing ChatGPT in the curriculum,” Bautista said in an interview with Annenberg Media before the election.
The duo also campaigned for expanded discount programs for Zipcar, Uber and Lyft, and extended hours at Doheny Library.
The other tickets included: Ali Bhatti and Chichi Makasi, John Breitfelder and Guinevere O’Beacain, and Heydy Vasquez and Elija Barnes. From lofty promises of a campus Kentucky Fried Chicken to Breitfelder-O’Beacain’s campaign suspension for their endorsement from NFL Hall-of-Famer Lynn Swan, this election cycle was particularly eventful.
This marks the second year USG has deviated from the plurality voting system. USG voting now utilizes an instant runoff system, or ranked-choice voting; If no ticket receives 50% of the vote, the ticket with the fewest votes is eliminated, and votes from that ticket are redistributed to the voters’ following choices.
In the first round, Bautista-Fallon received 1,107 votes, a close 54 more than runners-up Bhatti-Makasi. The Breitfelder-O’Beacain ticket received 784 votes, and Vasquez-Barnes trailed behind with 676 votes.
In the second round, Bautista-Fallon won by 73 votes, and in the final round, they won by 93 votes.
Undergraduate voter turnout was relatively low, decreasing by more than 15% from last year’s USG election. This year, only 3,620 of USC’s over 21,000 undergraduate students participated in the election, which was accessible through an online link.
USG’s senatorial election was also included on the ballot. The race, which garnered campus-wide attention for numerous campaign violations and explosive disagreements between candidates, was less competitive; After three candidates dropped out and one was disqualified, every student who was still in the race by the end of voting won a spot.
The new senators include: Jeremiah Boisrond, Sudeepta Murthy, Andrew Cardenas, Justin Shih, Sabeeh Mirza, Jad Kilani, Kevin Hoang, Kian Salek, Dakota Driemeyer, Karim Debian, Zehran Muqtadir and Moy Valdez.
On Sunday, Morning, Trojan reported that candidate Mason Yonover, who gained notoriety for his campaign promises — including turning sorority houses into homeless shelters and spreading awareness for on-campus smoking — was disqualified from the election. Later, USG published a document outlining the offenses Yonover was found guilty of, which included violating USG’s code of ethics by using “excessively vulgar, crude or discriminatory” language.
This came after a slew of controversial social media posts and an altercation with fellow candidate Dakota Driemeyer. During a senatorial forum, Yonover told Driemeyer to “go fuck yourself” after Driemeyer said he voted for President Donald Trump, according to the document.
“There have been more violations by candidates this year compared to last year, largely due to the increased number of complaints we received,” USG Chief Justice Susanna Andryan said. “The Judicial Council remains dedicated to ensuring a fair and respectful election process.”
Yonover’s name remained on the ballot through the end of voting and he received 694 votes, 19 more than Moy Valdez, the candidate with the least votes who made it on to the Senate. Samara Holloway, Sydney White and Christian Cook dropped out before voting began.
Only one woman, freshman Sudeepta Murthy, ran and earned a spot on USG’s senate. The public policy and data analytics major told Annenberg Media it was “a lot of pressure” to be the only woman on the stage, and said she worried about power dynamics in the workplace if she were to be elected. Murthy earned 36.69% of the votes, the second-most of any candidate behind Jeremiah Boisrond.
The results were announced in a USG meeting Tuesday night.