Hadley Bodell
Editor in Chief
Everyone involved with the student government at ISU can finally breathe a sigh of relief as the results of the election were officially announced on Friday, March 21st. Each college receives two seats in the Senate, meaning the two candidates with the most votes win. However, the most highly anticipated election was the executive ticket for the presidency and vice presidency.
In the weeks leading up to the election, both The Bengals Den Party and The Bengal Spirit Party made valiant efforts to persuade voters with their campaigns. Presidential candidate Franklin Spicer and his Vice, Gracie Funk, used their social media presence to promote their party. Videos played on the Student Union Building TVs and ISU students received emails all throughout March urging them to vote.
Students could vote online through the MyISU portal for their respective college senators, while every student was eligible to vote on the executive ticket. The official election results brief, posted by ASISU on Instagram, cited 1,644 total voters. This was a typo, as the ASISU Elections Commission told us it was supposed to be “VOTES.”
Once voting closed on March 21st, the Elections Commission counted the votes. The group comprised Elections Commissioner Kyle Price, ASISU Deputy Election Commissioner Josh McCubbin, current ASISU Secretary Eliana Madison, and Dean of Students Matt Daily.
Members of the Elections Commission confirmed that while they did a physical count to verify the election results, the initial counting was digitally completed by the IT Department. They received the data after it had gone through IT in a closed system only they had access to. This process ensured no technological error or human error occurred.
The Bengal Spirit Party now has more seats in the Senate, winning 8 out of the 14 seats. The College of Technology is the only college with both seats going to members of The Bengals Den Party: Krissy Feitas and Hannah Van Metre.
Colleges like the College of Science and Engineering voted in two members of The Bengal Spirit Party: Diya Pandey and Saugat Acharya, as well as the senatorial seats for Health Professions going to Aidan Hall and Prajakta Sharma.
The presidential win went to The Bengal Spirit Party: Sky Halter and Charles Medema with a whopping 410 votes. The opposing party garnered 285 votes. While these results weren’t a slim margin, this didn’t stop The Bengals Den Party from speaking up.
Price had already signed the verification of the 2025 Election results when members of the Bengals Den Party began contacting the Commission, claiming the results were invalid.
Over the week of ISU’s Spring Break, March 24-28, members of the Elections Commission tell us that Spicer contacted them over email requesting a recount. He claimed the voting numbers raised many concerns, considering the amount of time their team put into campaigning and the suspiciously low number of executive votes.
This isn’t the first time a losing party has contested the results. In fact, Spicer told us the past several elections have been contested. The ISU Elections Commission handbook states that the elections commission is allowed to determine if there was an issue with the counting, only then would a recount be conducted. In this case, the commission determined no issue was present.
“I expressed concerns and pushed for a recount because out of the reported 1,644 voters, only 695 actually voted for the executive ticket,” said Spicer. “On the surface, it doesn’t make sense that less than 50% of the people who supposedly turned out actually cast a vote for it; it felt like not all the votes were counted.”
Spicer expressed his gratitude for being able to run such an active campaign and for the success of his senators.
The losing party also believed Halter and his party utilized the ASISU booking account to reserve tables and rooms for campaign-related events during the voting week. While use of this account would give one party an unfair advantage, nothing of the sort occurred.
The Elections Commission gave a lengthy response detailing the error-proof voting and counting process. A screenshot of the total votes was included for Spicer to review.
Other winners included Paige Little and Silas Smith for the College of Education, Rakesh Itani and Farhana Hibbert for Graduate Studies, CJ Lopez and Robert Saunders for the College of Business, and Denis Arturo Vargas Barvosa and Bryson King for the College of Arts and Letters.
Now, Halter and Medema look forward to making a difference at ISU as president and vice president of ASISU.
“I’m working on getting easier club access for new students and easier promotion of clubs/events for club executives with a new dedicated ISU Clubs website,” said Halter, a sophomore marketing student minoring in journalism.
He also hopes to create greater Bengal Spirit throughout ISU, exhibited at sports games by hosting spirit weeks and encouraging greater department collaboration. The Bengal Spirit Party also has goals to cultivate a campus where ASISU is supporting the students, not becoming their enemy. The stigma around ASISU has existed for years, but Halter and Medema are committed to maximizing their resources so the student government is at the forefront of student life.
“I am so excited and grateful to have won this election, and [I] am very happy to have the opportunity to serve every Bengal here at ISU.”