Davis, Lovett win SGA presidential election

Despite the majority of representatives to this upcoming SGA term being male, the Presidential Election was won by a female, along with the leading Senator-at-Large and Sophomore Class President also being female. Senators Mollie Davis and Josh Lovett won the Presidential Election over former Senators Dalton Turner and Justin Robinson. Davis and Lovett picked up 60% of the vote to Turner and Robinson’s 40% from a total number of 832 votes. President Davis believed they won the election because “hard work pays off, and it was obvious that the students who voted did so based on what they saw in the campaigning and how they could act as President. They really believed in our platform.” New Vice President Lovett said that he and Davis were both “thankful to God, our families, friends, and the campus of Mercer. [We] can’t wait to give Mercer the best effort they deserve.”
The Senator-At-Large position was never up for debate with only five people running for five spots, but there was still a race for leading senator, which was taken by Senior Melissa Thompson. Eric Ennuson, Bentley Hudgins, Gayle-Anne Hendricks, and Javon Denson were the others who won.
The Senior Senators were hotly contested, and Khoi Le won the class president spot. Sage Harris, Alexandria Oliver, Branden Ryan, and Eddie Zealous were the other seniors who were elected to seats. The fifth and sixth spots were separated by one vote, meaning that Eddie Zealous scraped by.
The Junior Senators were another race that had just five running for five spots, meaning that the only race was for class presidency.

Since Senator Turner could only run for one spot this year due to the by-law changes of having the presidential and senatorial elections for SGA at the same time, he gave up his class presidency spot.
Nicholas Reynolds won class president, and he was thrilled with the chance “to be a voice and a leader for my class in SGA this upcoming year.” Alex Schmidt, Austin Thompson, Quentin Mayo, and Grey Newell all picked up their seats. The Junior Senators are also a weird make-up, being that there are no females who won a seat here and that four out of the five are from Greek Life.
The Sophomore Senators were also a well-run race, with Melina Hettiaratchi winning the class presidency. Marc Feliciano, Raymond Partolan, Josh Soave, and Jeremy Reardon all won seats in this race, with only one being a member who was elected previously as a freshman senator to SGA. Current Vice President Ike Ekeke was very happy with the crop of candidates, as he was “excited for this great group of senators to be in power next year, because they will do a lot of great things. I’m also proud of everyone who ran, showing initiative to improve Mercer.”
This year’s Election Marshall was Trenton White, a senator who was also SGA President at one point. He was very excited with how the new system worked, saying “the new election system ran smoothly with only a few complaints from students and faculty about class distractions as a result of the length of campaigning. Only one paper ballot was cast, the lowest number in any election. If the tenacity of their campaign is an indication of the year ahead, then the new administration will do wonders for SGA.”
The President who just transitioned out of power, Jordan Locke, was also quite happy with how everything turned out with the new system. “I am pleased with both the voter participation and results of the election. Both presidential candidates ran great campaigns, and I am looking forward to following the successes of the Davis/Lovett administration next year,” Locke said.