Daniel Soso was unofficially announced the next student trustee by the Student Election Commission Thursday evening in the General Lounge of the Illini Union. The commission will certify election results Monday night.

Soso, a junior in Engineering, described his reaction immediately following the announcement as “overwhelming joy.”

“I’ve wanted to do this since freshman year and I’m just so happy to see that it actually happened,” he said.

Soso received 1,551 votes for a total of 37.13 percent of the ballots cast, surpassing candidates Dan Weber (32.34 percent), David Wall (16.71 percent) and Owais Ahmed (10.22 percent) for the position.

Only 5,524 votes were cast, meaning that 14.16 percent of the student body participated in the campus election Tuesday and Wednesday. This turnout marks a decrease from last year, when about 17 percent of the student body voted, casting 6,825 ballots.

Two referenda on the ballot were also passed. Students voted in favor of raising the sustainable campus fee from $5 to $14 and renewing the Students for Equal Access to Learning, or SEAL program.

Soso will take office on July 1, replacing current trustee Matt Reschke.

In order to prepare for his term as student trustee, Soso said he hopes to enlist the aid of past students who held the position.

“I plan on talking with former student trustees, finding out what I should be doing now,” Soso said. “Just preparing myself for July 1, so when I step into office, everything’s ready to go.”

Mike Wilson, chairman of the Student Election Commission, said the first formal complaint of the election was filed at about 4:05 p.m. Thursday against Soso, but the complainant dropped it immediately after the results were announced.

Wilson said the complaint centered on a photo that ran in the Feb. 24–March 3 issue of The Black Sheep that, if not considered an independent endorsement, could have put Soso about $300 over the student trustee campaign spending limit of $500.

“I found out about it today. It’s just a misunderstanding,” Soso said. “It’s just they did their own endorsement thing and I’m happy that it (the complaint) was withdrawn.”

Wilson said that aside from the only formal complaint, which was withdrawn after roughly an hour, the campaigns were very clean.

“I really felt that everybody was trying to run a clean campaign this time around,” Wilson said. “It was mutually beneficial because everybody stayed within the rules as we interpret them and we were able to improve our rules going forward.”

Weber, runner-up for student trustee, lost the election by 200 votes.

“Obviously I wanted to win so it’s not the result I was looking for,” Weber said. “It still is important to me that I was able to run this time because, number one no complaints were filed against me throughout the entire process at all.”

Wall, a sophomore in LAS and the second runner-up for student trustee, won a LAS seat in the Illinois Student Senate.

“I am happy I’m going to return as a senator for LAS. Do I wish that I was student trustee? Of course,” Wall said. “I do have another year, so who knows.”

Wall said despite losing the student trustee position he was “incredibly proud” of running a clean campaign. He added that he hopes it will set a precedent for clean campaigns in the future.

Ahmed, a junior in LAS and the third runner-up, said he enjoyed the race for student trustee.

“You know, it was a good run,” Ahmed said. “I had a good time. Congratulations to him (Soso).”

The complete unofficial voting results are available on the SEC Web site: https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ro/www/StudentElectionCommission/index.html.