THE CONCESSION

To our fellow Biolans:

We would first like to extend our thanks to the Biola community for your participation in this AS election. Alex and I have been encouraged not only by all of the great ideas of our fellow candidates, but also by the amazing turnout of voters over the past two days. This demonstrates a growing interest in the welfare of this institution among the student body, a trend that we truly appreciate.

After a truly close election, we have been in discussion with Jared and Tiffany and we have every confidence in their abilities to represent Biola this year. We encourage all of our supporters to rally around them in the next year, uniting as a Student Body to collaborate for the cause of Christ.

Though we have not been selected to become next year’s AS President and Vice President, we still have much passion to push Biola toward a higher standard. In the next year, we would ask you to stand alongside us as we push toward the launch of the Isaiah project. As you may know, the Isaiah project will unite Christians across vocational, ethnic, and geographical barriers in order to shape the global panorama in the cause of Christ. A statement on the future of the Isaiah project will be posted following spring break on this blog.

At the same time, we implore the new administration to push for excellence, taking Biola to new heights and greater influence without compromising this Institution’s tradition and original vision.

We would like to thank those that ran alongside us this election. Your passion and energy for Biola is inspiring, and the spirit of camaraderie in this campaign was truly refreshing.

We would like to thank those in support of the RECAPTURE vision and of us. Your tireless efforts carried each of us personally through the weeks that have transpired. We would ask you to continue to collaborate with us in the coming year as we begin the initiative behind the Isaiah project.

Once again, we would like to thank our Biola peers for your consideration of our candidacy. Each of us has grown through this process and hope that perhaps some of you may have as well.

We are confident that God will continue to bless Biola this year and in the years to come.

THE ELECTION

The results of the AS election by the numbers:

A total of 1126 ballots were cast in the runoff election.

AS President run-off election results:
Jared Gibo and Tiffany Jones - 564 votes
Bradley Clarke and Alex Carpenter - 562 votes

A total of 1300 ballots were cast in the original election.

AS President
34% - Jared Gibo and Tiffany Jones (440 votes)
33% - Bradley Clarke and Alex Carpenter (429 votes)
9% - Andrew Webb and Amanda Zook (114 votes)
24% - Marcello Crivella and Jasmine Kahookele (317 votes)


A note on the election confusion:

Jared and I had a discussion late Thursday night about the different options presented to us, and we mutually agreed that the best way to decide the election would be to hold a recount and let those results stand.

Jared and I both knew and implicitly agreed to the runoff as a one-day election process. We each had the same amount of time to campaign, and we were each given equal opportunity in the entire election process.

Therefore, both Alex and I agree that Jared is the fair and rightful winner of the election and we encourage the student body to support the outcome of this election, Jared’s presidency, and AS as an organization.