UND announced on Oct. 25 that Fighting Hawks, Roughriders and Nodaks will be included in a runoff vote to determine the next UND nickname.

According to an email from UND, Fighting Hawks received the most votes, with a total of 6960 votes, which was 31.2 percent of the total. Roughriders received 4,687 votes (21.01 percent), Nodaks received 4,687 votes (20.49 percent), North Stars received 3,231 votes (14.48 percent) and Sundogs received 2,858 votes (12.81 percent).

Initially, it was announced that only two choices would be eligible for a run-off in the event that no nickname received more than 50 percent of the vote. However, UND President Robert Kelley decided that since Roughriders and Nodaks differed by only 116 votes, both would be included in the runoff.

Sundogs and North Stars will not be included in the runoff vote.

“We appreciate the participation and input of the voters, and are pleased that we have moved forward to three final choices.  We look forward to completing the last important step of this process through the runoff vote,” President Kelley said in the email to the student body.

“We were also pleased at the number of eligible voters who participated in this process—over 22,000.  This is the largest response UND has ever received for an institution-wide online poll,” continued Kelley in the email.

The runoff vote will use a similar process as the first vote, and the same groups will be eligible to vote in the runoff: UND students, faculty, staff, season ticket holders, retirees, alumni and donors.

The same firm, Qualtrics, will be conducting the runoff vote. Eligible voters will be able to select one of the three choices, and the nickname that receives the most votes will be selected as the final choice.

The runoff vote will take place from Monday, Nov. 2 to 11:59 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6. Students are encouraged to monitor for an email from the University that will contain instructions and a link to the vote.