Flores-McLeod Triumph In Close Race

Andrea R. Flores ’10 and Kia J. McLeod ’10 won the Undergraduate Council election last night by just 157 votes out of over 3,000 cast in a race that featured improved turnout, rule violations, and comedy.

The UC Election Commission declared Flores, the first Latino or Latina president in the UC’s 26-year history, the winner less than a day after suspending her campaign for forging a signature on a list of campaign staff members.

“It’s an honor,” said Flores, who is also the first woman to take the UC’s top post since Sujean S. Lee ’03 prevailed in 2002. “Harvard is so diverse, and it’s time the UC represented that.” She observed that the leaders of the Harvard Democrats, the Institute of Politics, and now the UC are all women.

According to Election Commissioner Steven T. Cupps ’09, student voting rose to 3,642 students from 2,181 last year, when turnout was unusually low.

Flores and McLeod received nearly 41 percent of first-place votes, with 1,493, compared to slightly over 39 per cent and 1,427 votes for rivals Benjamin P. Schwartz ’10 and Alneada D. Biggers ’10. After votes were redistributed according to the Hare-Clark voting system, in which students cast single transferable votes, the Flores ticket had 1,791 votes compared to 1,634 for Schwartz.

While Schwartz and Biggers held a 122 -person lead in Facebook group membership, Flores and McLeod won crucial endorsements from student groups like the Dems and the Harvard Republican Club. The Dems have now endorsed the winning candidate for the sixth consecutive year.

The victory for Flores is the first for a UC Finance Committee chair, Flores said. Many winners have risen through the ranks of the UC’s advocacy wing, the Student Affairs Committee, on which Schwartz serves as a vice-chair.

The road to electoral success has been difficult for candidates who are members of male final clubs. They have had their ambitions dashed in each of the last five years. Throughout this campaign, Flores taunted Schwartz about his membership in the Fly, saying that he should open up final club space to all students if his plans for improving student space fall through.

Flores and McLeod campaigned under the banner of “Students Together,” promising to include more students in the UC, improve social events on and off campus and give undergraduates greater academic flexibility.

“I think that people want a much more open and inclusive UC,” Flores said.

While Flores has served on the UC for five semesters, McLeod is a new representative. She has been involved with student groups, including serving as the financial director for the Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club.

Schwartz campaigned on his ticket’s experience with both advocacy and student groups. Besides serving on SAC, Schwartz is also the vice-chair of the College Events Board, known recently for planning last month’s Girl Talk concert, which was canceled shortly after it began. Biggers is the CEB secretary and the president of the Association of Black Harvard Women.

The race took an unusual turn late last night when Flores’ campaign was suspended for the rest of the election—which ended at noon today—for forging a signature on its staff list. But the Flores campaign responded that the student whose signature was forged, Black Men’s Forum President Sangu J. Delle ’10, had given electronic permission for someone else to sign for him since he was out of the country, so the signature was made in “good faith.”

Though Schwartz said yesterday that “all Harvard students should have the chance to recast their ballot with this new information,” Schwartz campaign manager William V. Leiter ’10 said in a phone interview that the campaign would not pursue a re-vote.

Charles T. James ’09-’10, a UC representative, finished in third place. He and running mate Max H. Y. Wong ’10 campaigned for increased student service.

The two other losing tickets ran on humor more than ideas. The antics of Michael C. Koenigs ’09 and Aneliese K. Palmer ’12 included a mock assassination attempt at a UC debate. Roger G. Waite ’10 and Alexandra A. Petri ’10 called for the installation of a Hapsburg prince as UC president.

—Staff writer Alex M. McLeese can be reached at amcleese@fas.harvard.edu.