Joshua Pittel is set to become the next Undergraduate Student Government president, after capturing 55.3 percent of the vote in the March 31 and April 1 elections.
With 1,619 votes, Pittel beat his only opponent, Mark Appleton, by 311 votes.
Pittel, an economics junior, expressed his excitement after the election results were announced in front of Old Main at noon on Wednesday.
"Oh my God, this is insane. Oh my God, I'm freaking out," Pittel said. "I gotta call my mom."
Pittel said he knew it was a neck-and-neck race, and the result did surprise him a little.
"In all honesty, I thought the odds were against us," Pittel said.
Ballot casters also overwhelmingly approved the increase of the Arizona Students' Association fee from $1 to $2; 80.6 percent voted for the increase.
ASA Executive Director Serena Unrein said now that all Arizona students have voted for the fee, it's up to the Arizona Board of Regents to approve it.
"I hope that the regents will listen to students' overwhelming support," Unrein said.
Appleton, consoling supporters of his unsuccessful campaign, said he wanted to stay positive despite that fact that he can't run for office again next year because he will be a senior.
"One door closes, another door opens," Appleton said. "We'll be all right."
Appleton declined to say whether he thought Pittel would make a successful USG president.
Only 7.1 percent of eligible Tempe campus undergraduates participated in the election.
USG Elections Director Elyssa Ford said she tried to get to students through a variety of means — ads in The State Press, voting procedure cards, e-mails, signs and talks to student groups. She used about half of the organization's $4,000 elections budget to staff the three polling locations, Ford added.
Supporters of both USG tickets expressed frustration about their opponents' campaigning.
Pittel said the campaign was fair overall, but he noticed some of his posters disappeared from campus.
"Half of our signs are gone," he said. "[But that's] 'He said, she said.'"
Meanwhile, Appleton supporter Brendan Corrigan filed a complaint with Ford this afternoon, alleging he saw Max Dembow, a Pittel supporter, use his laptop to help another student vote in Palo Verde Market late Tuesday night.
USG election rules prohibit candidates and their supporters from campaigning in the residence halls, he said.
Corrigan said he overheard Dembow say, "All you have to do is put your user name and password in, and I'll take care of the rest."
Dembow said he was in the market, but he was merely helping a friend who had trouble voting, and he never said those words.
"I stated, 'Once you put your user name and password in, it only takes a couple of clicks,' " Dembow said.
Pittel said he and his supporters ran a clean campaign.
"We followed the rules," he said.
Pittel's executive board will include Asher Kaplan-Dailey and Jacquelyn Shoemake. Both are marketing juniors.
Students also elected 13 USG senators, none of whose races were contested.
Reach the reporter at andre.f.radzischewski@asu.edu.
