The referendum to increase the council's term-bill fee--from $20 to $50--failed by only 139 votes, despite having the support of every presidential candidate and almost the entire council. 1,583 students voted yes on the increase, while 1,434 voted no.

The failure of the term-bill referendum will likely leave the council strapped for cash next year.

"It's been a disappointing night," said outgoing Vice President Kamil E. Redmond '00, even though Driskell and Burton, whom she endorsed, carried the election.

"We have an operating budget that is drastically small," Redmond said.

More students--3,017--voted in this year's election than in last year's, which drew only 2,706 people to the polls. In 1997, 3,084 voted in the council presidential and vice presidential elections.

After having lost in last year's race as a vice presidential candidate, Driskell now possesses a broad mandate to pursue the platform of community-building that she first proposed with T. Christopher King '01, her former presidential running mate.

Driskell has said that her yearlong tenure as president will focus on fostering a single Harvard community from what she says are fractured and isolated individual ones.