Danganan could not be reached for comment last night.
Bush, whose platform mirrored Stewart's in rejecting political activism, said he thought his presence in the race ultimately helped tip the scales in her favor.
"If I hadn't been in the race, I think Jobe would have won," Bush said, "When I got eliminated, the people who voted for me were redistributed for Beth, and that put her over the top. A lot of people voted for me who wouldn't have voted otherwise."
In fact, in the round in which Bush was eliminated, Danganan and Stewart were separated by two votes. When Bush's votes were redistributed, 125 of them went to Stewart and 79 to Danganan.
Despite predictions of low voter turnout due to the subdued nature of this campaign and the relative obscurity of most of the candidates before it began, more students voted in this popular election than in either of the previous two, Turnout numbered 3,084 students, just shy of the 3,166 students who voted in last week's Harvard Dining Services' campus-wide referendum on serving grapes in the dining halls.
Stewart said she and her campaign staff, which assembled with her and Cohen to await the results, were jubilant after the Election Commission delivered the news at 1:45 a.m.
"We ran outside so that we could scream with liberty," Stewart said. "As we ran outside, the heavens opened and the snow fell down and we screamed and hugged. It was beautiful."
U.C. Election Results
The reace for president and vice-president remained tight in each round, but Beth A. Stewart '00 and Samuel C. Cohen '00 managed to hang on to their initial leads.