The first Yale College Council elections to include the Yale Student Activities Committee races closed Wednesday night with the highest number of candidates and voter turnout in recent memory.

YCC Vice President Nirupam Sinha ’05 said while the number of candidates were as high as he could remember, he believed voter turnout could have been even higher if the dining halls were open. Sinha said the increased student interest was higher because of a number of events and issues, including Jeopardy, changes in YCC structure and Darrell Hammond’s upcoming comedy show.

“The numbers were just through the roof,” Sinha said. “We’re very excited about the interest we saw in terms of voter turnout and candidates. Hopefully, we’ll take some of that positive energy and keep moving ahead.”

Freshman Class Council adviser Steven Syverud ’06 said he thinks the turnout from the FCC elections may bode well for the Class of 2007.

“Hopefully, it’s a sign of things to come with this class,” he said. “FCC turnout here beat out turnout for the [New Haven] mayoral race.”

The YSAC elections had only two contested races. Jacqueline Carter ’07, who won the Saybrook YSAC election uncontested, said she knew she would be on the committee before the votes had been counted. Carter said she has no worries about working on the inaugural committee.

“I think we’re just going to pick up where the people before us left off,” Carter said. “There’s a lot of experience in the YCC that they can bring to the table.”

Pierson boasted the highest number of candidates in both the FCC and YCC races, with nine and 11 candidates respectively. In addition, the race for Branford YCC representative — which David Gershkoff ’06 won — was one of the closest.

“It came down to the wire,” Syverud said.

Angela Wade ’07 and Simbarashed Marekera ’07 will participate in a runoff election this Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., for the second Jonathan Edwards FCC seat.

The winners of the YCC Council of Representative elections are Timothy Hutter ’06, David Gershkoff ’06, Michael Schwab ’06, Marty Reape ’04, Christopher Wells ’06, Tammer Qaddumi ’06, Casey Moriarty ’05, Emily Scharfman ’05, Ben Brogadir ’07, Sharon Goott ’06, Jerrell Whitehead ’05 and Jesse Pizarro ’06. In addition, Andrew Schram ’06, Matt Ciesielski ’05 and Chi Lam Park ’06 will serve for half a term.

The returning representatives are Daniel Weeks ’06, Steven Syverud ’06, Alan Kennedy-Schaffer ’06, Chad Harple ’06, Jose Ochoa ’05, Lee Hiromito ’05, Jennifer Carter ’05 and Henry Cook ’06.

The newly elected YSAC includes Stephanie Bloch ’06, Emery Choi ’07, William Borden ’06, Laura Greer ’07, Zahra Kanji ’05, Alice Lorch ’05, Austin Broussard ’06, Al Jiwa ’06, Jacqueline Carter ’07, Jocelyn Ranne ’07, Elizabeth Kennard ’07 and William Mao ’06.

The FCC representatives are Marissa Brittenham, Joseph Matthews, Tucker Serenbetz, Ryan Atlas, Sarah Ongun, Bridget Deiters, Orly Friedman, John Kearney, Aditi Anand, Hrvoje Osteric, Albert Lawrence, Whitney Haring-Smith, Yassmin Sadeghi, Jayson Pischler, Yup Kim, Wendy He, Eric Feinstein, Adam Barth, Marcel Przymusinski, Irving Ye, Geraldine Gassam, Allison Pickens and Whytne Brooks.