The polls had closed. The votes were tallied. The names were announced. Sophia Magill called her mother via cell phone.

“I won,” she said with a smile on her face.

With the largest voter turnout in recent Government of Student Body history — 5,023 total votes for GSB executives — Magill and running mate William Rock carried away the executive seats, winning 48.4 percent of the electorate, or 2,429 votes.

“It’s just overwhelming,” Magill said of her victory. “I want to say the other two slates were awesome, and I respect both of them a lot.”

The winners were announced Thursday night in the Campanile Room of the Memorial Union by the GSB election commission.

Rock, who arrived at the announcements just in time to hear of his victory, didn’t express surprise over the results.

“It’s about what I expected,” he said.

Magill and Rock finished far ahead of their competitors, with the slate of Drew Miller and Jenn Riggs taking 27.5 percent of the vote, and the slate of Russell Graves and Dave Stout finishing with 22.6 percent.

Clint Fichter, GSB election commissioner, said it was likely the visibility of the Magill/Rock campaign that enabled them to garner such a clear majority of votes.

“They clearly did more work than anyone else,” he said. “They produced more campaign material, visited with more groups, earned more endorsements and had more people working for them.”

Fichter characterized the vote distribution as “a killing,” and said that he’d expected a much closer gap between the slates.

Miller, who earlier in the campaign expressed doubt that GSB could be changed under any ticket other than his, was without many words after the announcements were made.

“I think that Sophia and Will ran a good campaign, and I hope GSB prospers under them,” he said.

Graves, who said part of his campaign was simply determining whether or not a student government outsider could win a position in the GSB executive branch, said his campaign had not been without its successes.

“We gave it a shot, and we got 22 percent of the vote as complete outsiders,” he said. “I think that shows that everyone can run.”

Tony Luken, speaker of the senate and four-year veteran of GSB, said Magill’s victory would likely prove a benefit for students in the future.

“I am very pleased at the outcome,” he said. “Sophia and Will ran a very positive campaign, got the vote out, talked with a lot of students, and their message resonated very well. I expect to see a lot of good things come out of this ticket, and I’m sure students will see them.”

Current GSB Vice President Ben Albright said the election clearly reflected the student opinion.

“I think the students spoke, and that’s who they chose,” he said. “I think the majority of the students’ vote is rarely wrong. I think that they both know the inner workings of GSB, so they won’t be lacking there. Other than the learning curve involved in the executive roles, I think they’ll be able to get started right away.”

Magill outlined the first steps in her presidency.

“Both William and I are ready to put things into action,” she said. “We’ve been working with a lot of different students at Iowa State, and we’re excited to fill a very experienced and dedicated cabinet.”

She said the victory marked a first step toward greater student body involvement.