Supernova wins IUSA elections with ease

The Supernova executive ticket won the IU Student Association election with about 51 percent of last week's vote, said senior Erin Koops, IUSA elections coordinator.\nThe ticket, led by president-elect Jake Oakman, a junior, will take office April 15.\nAbout 16 percent of the student body, 5,401 students, voted in this year's election Koops said. She said the voter turnout was up from last year.\nSupernova's closest competitor, the ONE ticket, received 35 percent. ONE was followed by the Miracle, Imagine and House tickets.\nOakman said it was an intense but clean election.\nThe executive tickets received election results Friday. Koops said the results were certified by the IUSA Supreme Court, and no complaints or contestments were accepted by the election commission.\nOakman said he found out his ticket had won just before a 5 p.m. Supernova ticket meeting Friday. \n"I did a fist pump as I was reading the e-mail," Oakman said. "I was pretty happy."\nThe only downside, Oakman said, was that two of Supernova's candidates did not win.\nThe ticket expected to get election results earlier, sophomore Jeff Wuslich, vice president for administration-elect, said. But about 40 Supernova-faithful students at the ticket's Willkie Quad meeting were willing to wait, he said.\nThe executive candidates announced the election results at the meeting.\n"All the hard work that everybody did really paid off," Wuslich, said. "We have good people and a good platform -- it looks like the student body realized that."\nAfter a dinner of celebration at Applebee's, Wuslich said the candidates began to think about their plans for the next few weeks.\nOakman said the first thing the ticket will do is get in contact with current officeholders and hold meetings with the ticket's new members of congress. He said he will also get in touch with current IUSA president Meredith Suffron, a senior, to shadow her for a couple of days.\nOnce in office, Supernova wants to open up communication with other student groups and work on campus unification, Oakman said.\n"We want to make (IUSA) a 365-day-a-year organization and not a two-day-a-year organization," Oakman said.\nONE presidential candidate Justin Treasure, a junior, said he will support Supernova's candidates, calling them "well-qualified."\nTreasure said he was satisfied with the campaign.\n"We were really pleased to get the issues we did out on campus," Treasure said.\nHe said the ONE ticket will continue to push for its issues on campus, and they would be happy to work with the administration-elect, Treasure said.\n"The ONE ticket will continue to work on its issues," Treasure said. "Win or lose IUSA, ONE promised to work on these issues."\nIn the next few weeks, Supernova will be thinking about how to fill department director positions and trying to fill empty seats, Wuslich said. He said they will also undergo training and orientation to learn what roles they will fill next year.