Teddy Saull elected MSU president

Teddy Saull is the MSU president-elect.

After 8,364 votes were cast and counted, Saull narrowly beat out Jacob Brodka by 102 votes. In the third-round tally, Brodka and Saull were separated by just 11 votes.

“My housemates are now surrounding me but I was alone when David [Campbell] called me,” Saull told the Silhouette minutes after finding out he won the election.

“It’s interesting – he called me when I was writing a Facebook post about losing. That’s how I was going to break it to my team. So I did not expect to win."

Jyssika Russell came in third, followed by Israa Ali. Russell had just 48 votes more than Ali in the first round. Jason Wolwowicz was eliminated in the first round with 396 first-preference votes.

Voter turnout for this year's election was one of the highest in MSU history, with 40.5 percent turnout.

Saull ran a campaign on building community. He proposed a participatory budget program with a $100K fund and has plans to freeze the MSU fee. Saull said he would establish a bigger frost week, a peer tutoring network, a 'Clubza' website and exam period upgrades.

“I wasn’t sure where we stood and I was preparing for that reality [of losing], but here we are," Saull said.

Saull will start his term as MSU president on May 1.

In addition to voting for the next MSU president, students also voted on a MSU healthcare coverage referendum and HSR bus pass referendum.

All three healthcare options failed, so the current MSU health plan will stay the same and cost $57.50 per student. The 12-month bus pass and expanded service option passed, which means students will pay $12.50 more per year to add those features to the HSR bus pass, starting in the 2014-15 year.