This year’s Student Government Association (SGA) presidential election will be decided by a run-off election, as confirmed by current student body president Abbey Widick.

The candidates, Patton Maynard and Josh Witkop, will take the weekend to prepare for the runoff, which will take place next week, according to SGA’s Elections and Regulations Chair Clayton Dana-Bashian.

“I have been told that due to there being more than two candidates, no candidate was able to accumulate more than 50 percent of the vote,” Maynard said. “We’ve prepared for this and we’re ready to finish what we started back in March.”

Dana-Bashian said the candidates will campaign between Monday, April 15 and Wednesday, April 17, leading up to the election that will take place from 9 a.m to 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, April 17.

Maynard said his campaign strategy will remain the same in the run-off.

“Our plan is to carry on the same task we started at the very beginning of empowering the student body,” Maynard said. “We plan to highlight our campaign’s mission rather than discuss the faults of our opponent’s.”

Witkop said his motto, “Serve On”, goes beyond the campaign.

“Serve On transcends candidates and individuals,” Witkop said. “When we get caught up on personal comparisons between candidates, an election moves away from messages and ideas. At the end of the day, my team and I don’t evaluate ourselves or our campaign based on who we can overcome in an election, but on the students we can serve in a presidency.”

Ontario Brown, the Vice President External elect, said that he could work well with any of the three initial candidates.

“Each one has helped me out as a leader, SGA representative and a person,” Brown said. “They have all touched my life in many ways.”

Widick concurs.

“Josh and Patton would both make excellent student body presidents!” she said. “Both have been involved in SGA for many years, are involved in other organizations on campus, and are both willing to dedicate the time and energy that is required over the next year to fight for students.”

Students can expect to receive an email Wednesday morning to vote.

The last time there was an SGA run-off election was in 2017 when both the president and vice president of external affairs positions required a run-off.