After a week of intense campaigning, Francesca Johnson and Pauline Kistka were elected Saint Mary's first-year class president and vice president in a run-off election Wednesday.
Voting ran until midnight and elections commissioner Danielle Lerner called the pair Thursday morning to inform them of their victory.
Winning 60.82 percent of the votes, Johnson and Kistka finished well ahead of their opponents Mary Conroy and Katie Connolly, who garnered 38.14 percent.
Participation was high with 194 out 404 first-year students casting votes via Prism, a College computer network, Lerner said. There were two abstentions.
Johnson and Kistka won the preliminary election Monday with 49.73 percent of the vote.
"I was really surprised and I was so excited," Johnson said. "I had always wanted to do something like this ... so to find out people thought we would do a good job was exciting."
Campaigning under the slogan "Your energizer bunnies - we will keep going and going for you," Johnson and Kistka spent hours knocking on dorm rooms over the weekend and then again Tuesday night trying to win their classmates votes.
They passed out cookies and stickers and promoted their idea of staging a dance marathon to raise money for charity. The two women also proposed creating the position of dormitory representative, which would function as a liaison between the various residence halls on campus.
Before Johnson and Kistka can embark on their year in office, however, they will face with the immediate task of assembling a first-year class board. Composed of 12 students, the board will advise and assist the president and vice president with class events.
Johnson and Kistka will spend the following weeks accepting and reviewing applications. They are looking for women with a passion for Saint Mary's, Johnson said.
"I think [we will choose] people that really want to help and that obviously have energy for doing activities," Johnson said.
