In a tight University of Iowa Student Government election with high voter turnout, the REAL Party came away victorious in the executive ticket race, but the BEACH Party grabbed more seats in the Senate.

Liz Mills will serve as UISG president with Morgan Brittain as her vice president after defeating Sam Wampler and Kolton Dahms by just 278 votes.

Now, REAL Party leaders say they’re ready to start some of their initiatives.

“The first thing we plan on doing is cutting organized salaries like we promised,” Mills said. “The second thing is to get an amazing team of executives.”

The REAL Party had promised to cut presidential and vice-presidential salaries to 2013 levels, looking for a cut from around $8,900 to $7,500. 

The REAL platform includes initiatives to allow student to use their IDs for parking and at restaurants, expand Nite Ride to all students on campus, create academic credit for volunteering in the community, place compost bins around campus, and be more transparent with their decisions.

There were 6,278 undergraduate voters, the second-highest voter turnout — just over 30 percent — since 1993, the oldest election for which numbers are available.

Sen.-elect Noah Bryant of the BEACH party said the high voter turnout was due to contributions from both parties.

“Both parties worked really hard on turnout, and I’m really glad students took notice of that,” he said.

Voters, with a mix of REAL and BEACH candidates as well as independent candidates, picked Senate members individually; 84 senatorial candidates were on the ballot.

The highest number of votes for a senatorial candidate went to women’s basketball player Ally Disterhoft, with 1,716 votes. 

The 39th and final member elected, Abby Dockum of the REAL Party, received 1,321 and edged out three candidates who were within two votes.

Despite a victory in the executive ticket, there were 21 BEACH Party members elected to the Senate. The REAL Party took 18 seats.

Six independent candidates ran; none of them won a seat.

The Senate comprises 50 seats. Appointed incoming freshmen will fill in five of the remaining 11.

The remaining six will be appointed from the following organizations: Native American Student Association, Asian American Coalition, Association for Latinos Moving Ahead, Black Student Union, Spectrum UI, and Student Disability Services.

Bryant said working with Mills, Brittain, and other REAL senators won’t be a challenge.

“Both parties essentially had the same ideas,” he said. “We’re all students of the same campus, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Brittain, issued a statement similar to Bryant, saying a lot of BEACH and REAL member are close, so working together won’t be an issue.

With taking control of the Senate, Bryant said, he and the BEACH Party would like their first action to be enacting student-safety measures.

The BEACH platform advocated for an expanded Nite Ride system for both men and women, targeted low-level acts of aggression, and further involvement in the It’s on Us campaign and the Hawkeyes Got Your Back program.

Nicholas Moffitt contributed reporting to the story.