“Yes,” the viewers cry in unison.

Molnar reads through the results as other staff members hand out still-warm photocopies of the outcome. In general, the crowd is silent.

With the announcement of the preliminary eighth-place ranking of Matt S. DeBergalis—a 26-year-old MIT graduate who ran on a platform designed to appeal primarily to students—the crowd erupts into gasps and whistles.

“How’d DeBergalis get that number?” one viewer demands of another.

Surprise spreads among the viewers.

“DeBergalis is a shocker,” someone cries, and the remark echoes through the crowded hallway.

In an atrium strewn with round lunch tables, DeBergalis’ campaign manager Geoff Schmidt—dressed in army pants, a studded belt, and a black campaign T-shirt, is pacing excitedly away from the table where three other young supporters are talking frantically into their cell phones.

Long-haired Schmidt, who says he’s had six hours of sleep in the past three days, hugs his head in excitement as his first foray into politics approaches a surprising ending.

“I’m trying not to get too excited,” he says, explaining that he will look up the average in the two districts whose results are delayed by the memory-card debacle.

Ultimately, DeBergalis does not gain a place in the council. Still, Schmidt says he thinks his candidate’s success will bring student issues to the table and to future elections.

In the counting room, councillors David P. Maher and Bryan Murphy ’86-’87 are huddled over the preliminary results printout, Maher’s voice leaping into an excited falsetto.

Winter and his fellow pundits speculate about the influence of the two outstanding districts as several viewers move toward the door, passing out of the Senior Center and into the chilly night.

—Jessica R. Rubin-Wills contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Nathan J. Heller can be reached at heller@fas.harvard.edu.