Junior Brendon Wexted Hand was elected ASUP director of finance for the 2019-20 school year on Wednesday night after winning a run-off election against freshman Joey Paumier.
According to ASUP Director of Communications Kathleen Burks, Wexted Hand won with 52.32 percent of the vote while Paumier received 47.76 percent of the vote.
The election for director of finance was the only contested position this year on the ASUP executive board. Sophomore Annael Mejia was the third candidate for the finance position in the initial election.
“I definitely put a lot into this because I knew that I was going against a lot of great candidates,” Wexted Hand said. “I wouldn’t say I was necessarily confident going into it, but I felt comfortable knowing that I put as much into it as I could’ve.”
Wexted Hand is currently on the ASUP Financial Management Board and serves as the ASUP Controller. He ran on a platform that emphasized increasing club funding and creating a club liaison position to strengthen the relationship between clubs and ASUP.
Following protocol listed in the ASUP Constitution, the two candidates had to compete in a run-off election after neither candidate received a majority of the vote in the initial election on March 27. Paumier beat Wexted Hand in the first election, receiving 36.35 percent of the vote with Wexted Hand receiving 35.18 percent.
According to Burks, voter turnout for the run-off was about 19 percent, or 716 students. The run-off started April 2 at 7 a.m. and ended April 3 at 7 p.m.
“I’m going to get to know a lot of the club members and presidents, treasurers, and such,” Wexted Hand said. “I like to think of myself as a somewhat sociable guy so I’m excited to meet people and just make their jobs easy.”
Madison Pfeifer is a reporter for The Beacon. She can be reached at pfeifer21@up.edu.
