The Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA) certified the Oct. 22-24 executive and senate election results and elected committee chairs at a senate meeting Oct. 26.
The GUSA senate unanimously voted to certify Darius Wagner (CAS ʼ27) as GUSA president-elect and Nazgol Missaghi (CAS ʼ28) as vice president-elect after they won the executive election by less than 200 votes last week. The senate also unanimously voted to certify the senate elections for both first-year senators-elect and at-large senators-elect.
The senate also appointed Senator Cameran Lane (CAS ʼ28) as speaker of the senate and Senator Jacob Intrator (CAS ’27) as vice speaker of the senate.
Vonn Russell (CAS ʼ27), the chair of the Election Commission, said the commission found no issues in the results that would prevent certification.
“Based on everything, the Election Commission does recommend that the Senate does certify these results,” Russell said at the meeting.
Senator Christian Spadini (CAS ʼ26) said the exact results of the first-year senate election were posted on X by an anonymous account before the GUSA Election Commission announced them Oct. 25.
“I can’t be the only one who saw that comment on Twitter that leaked the freshmen results before they were released,” Spadini said at the meeting. “I checked, and the exact results were posted on Twitter.”
Ella Hastings (CAS ’27), a member of the Election Commission, said the leak shouldn’t prevent the certification of the election results.
“We don’t really know how that got out, but there’s nothing in the bylaws that says it’s an issue of certification,” Hastings said at the meeting. “Voting ended at 8 p.m. on Friday and all results were exported within a ten-minute time period, but results were not impacted by the early release that some people may have seen of the freshman votes, so in my personal opinion, I don’t think it’s an issue for certification.”
The senate unanimously voted to confirm Hastings as director of operations later in the meeting, a position she previously resigned from to assist the Election Commission during the elections period.
Several senators asked the members of the Election Commission present at the meeting about how they handled election results.
Hastings said the Election Commission worked with the Center for Student Engagement (CSE), which supports student organizations, to run the election and that the Qualtrics software, a survey tool used to collect votes, was secure throughout the election.
“We removed the password from the GUSA drives before the election went on, the password was changed as well, from probably a point of paranoia by the CSE midway through the election as well — there’s been no evidence of tampering,” Hastings said. “The Qualtrics ballot is very complicated. It’s very difficult to work within the first place, very difficult to tamper further from that. The CSE has seen the ballot, they’ve been involved.”
“So minimal to zero ability for interference, nothing looked awry during the election period — the Election Commission received no information that people were messing with the ballot during that period,” Hastings added.
After the senate voted to certify the election results, Wagner swore in the 11 senators-elect.
The senate appointed Zadie Weaver (CAS ʼ28), the previous vice speaker, as the chair of the Policy and Advocacy Committee (PAC), the committee that reviews proposed legislation before it goes before the senate. The senate also appointed Han Li (CAS ’27) as the chair of the Finance and Appropriations Committee (FinApp), the committee that distributes funds to student organizations. Youngsung Sim (SFS ’27) became the chair of the Ethics and Oversight Committee, which oversees GUSA’s internal operations and upholds accountability among GUSA members.
Weaver, who lost a GUSA vice presidential bid, said as the chair of PAC, she aims to highlight how the senate implements GUSA policies.
“One thing I learned from the exec race more than anything is that a lot of what the senate does is doing the problem-solving and doing the solutions, but what there seems to be a lack of is a recognition for the implementation that we do,” Weaver said at the meeting. “I want to make sure that, going forward, the senate gets credit for all the policy work we are doing.”
Lane said he plans to work alongside Wagner while ensuring the senate maintains its independence.
“I’m more than capable of working with the soon-to-be President Wagner, but we also have to make sure the senate stays within its own right,” Lane said at the meeting. “I want to make sure that we take our responsibility of oversight seriously.”
Intrator said he hopes to restore unity in the senate after a tense election period.
“We had an incredibly tense election cycle, and the number one thing I’m going to do as vice-speaker is to make sure that we unify,” Intrator said at the meeting. “I’m going to work with internal engagement, and with anybody who wants to work with me, to make sure that we pull down the temperatures.”
