By: Erica Lampert ~Staff Writer~

Student Government Association’s (SGA) executive election has closed with Zeina Farhat, Ryan Fitzgerald and Eduardo Parton (ZRE) as the winning candidates.

With four tickets on the ballot, this year was more competitive than last year’s one ticket ballot.

The Board of Elections saw an increase of 1,000 students voting this year when compared to the numbers in last year’s election. There was a total of 1,413 student votes, which was close to the 1,531 votes in 2014 when the ballot also contained four tickets.

“Compared to previous years when the races were competitive, the number of people who voted was right in the ballpark,” Assistant Director for Leadership and Orientation Molly Dugan said.

The tobacco-free polling was an addition to SGA’s executive ticket ballot this year. The three questions about tobacco use on campus were included to help SGA explore the possibly of reducing tobacco use on Xavier’s campus in the future.

Based on the polls, 761 students voted yes to tobacco use on campus being a problem that needed to be addressed, while 617 voters disagreed.

More than 800 students said that they would support a complete ban of tobacco products on campus while 522 voted no. Nearly 1200 students also said they would support establishing designated smoking areas on campus to help reduce or eliminate tobacco use on campus. Almost 200 voters said they would not support this action.