The Graduate Student Council (GSC) voted unanimously last night against holding a run-off election to determine next year’s ASSU Executive, siding with the Undergraduate Senate and overturning what the Elections Commissioner said is required by the ASSU Constitution.

Unless a case to contest the governing bodies’ decision is filed with and upheld by the Constitutional Council, the ASSU’s judicial body, Hershey Avula ‘08 and Mondaire Jones ‘08 will be next year’s ASSU president and vice president, respectively. The runners-up, Brett Hammon ‘08 and Lakshmi Karra ‘08, said they have no plans to contest the election results.

The GSC’s decision came down to a debate over whether an abstention should be counted as a vote. Though a record number of students turned out to vote, a large number of them did not cast a ballot for any ASSU Executive slate.

“The question for us as a body is how a vote should be defined,” said outgoing GSC co-Chair Paul Gurney. “Are votes people who voted for an executive slate, or everyone who logged onto the ballot?”

If only voters who cast a ballot for at least one executive slate are counted, Avula/Jones received over 68 percent support. But if abstentions — people who did not vote for any executive slate — are also counted in the total number of votes, Avula and Jones did not garner the majority required by the ASSU Constitution.

Elections Commissioner Bernard Fraga ‘08 said last night that a run-off election was needed, but also made it a point to say that he was only obeying what the Constitution required of him.

“It is not the recommendation or the decision of the Elections Commission to hold a run-off,” Fraga said. “It is the constitutional requirement of the Elections Commission to hold a run-off.”

Ultimately, the GSC decided that people who abstained from the ASSU Executive election should not be counted in the total number of votes.

“Even if you buy the argument that 1,323 people abstained to make a point, abstention is a choice not to participate,” said GSC member George Bloom. “You bear the consequences even if that’s a statement of conscience.”

Hammon and Karra told the GSC that they did not want to influence the decision one way or another.

“We don’t feel it’s our job as candidates to tell you guys — the GSC — how to do your job,” Hammon said. “We’re going to respect the decision of the Undergraduate Senate, the GSC and the Constitutional Council.”

“If all the bodies that be decide against a run-off, Lakshmi and I won’t leave kicking and screaming,” he added. “But if there is a run-off, we would like to run.”

In an interview with The Daily after the GSC vote, Hammon and Karra said they were not even aware of the relevant constitutional clause that would allow them to contest the elections results to the Constitutional Council.

Hammon and Karra said that while they themselves would not file a case, they have not decided if they would support a case if it is filed by someone else.

“We personally are not going to be pushing it,” Karra said.

Relations between the two slates seemed to remain amicable, and Avula said that he had extended an offer to Hammon and Karra to serve on his executive cabinet.

Also in last night’s meeting, which was their last together, the outgoing GSC approved next year’s budget after shifting funds from discretionary accounts to more specific line items. They ended the meeting with words of advice to their soon-to-be successors.

“Please love this organization,” said teary-eyed outgoing co-Chair Jenny Allen JD ‘07, who also writes for The Daily. “Devote your time to it.”