The vote giveth and the vote taketh away.

Last week, Arizona State University students recalled Associated Students president Chris Weber by an electoral margin of 2-1.

"I think it's a sad loss for ASU students," said ASUA president Benjamin Driggs, "because he was a good president."

Of the 2,977 ballots cast in the election Wednesday and Thursday, 2,006 favored recalling Weber, ASASU announced Friday.

Driggs said Weber got about 1,000 votes in favor of retaining him as president.

Weber was arrested last September for allegedly punching a female ASU student during a bar brawl. Those charges were dropped. He still faces charges for incidents in October of disorderly conduct and trespassing in a women's dormitory.

Driggs said ASU has certainly had its share of problems with their student presidents. Last year, ASASU disqualified Marci Hendrickson because of campaign violations. Four years earlier, an ASASU president had been impeached.

Paul Allvin, head of the Arizona Students Association which represents the 100,000 students at the three Arizona universities, said Weber had been a hard worker and had done a lot of good for ASU's student body.

"Unfortunately, the recall election was about what happened after hours," he said.

Allvin said the higher student turnout might have resulted from anger over Weber's actions and hoped that the incident would reenergize the student body into becoming more involved in their government.

Weber won last spring's election by a narrow margin when about 1,000 students cast their ballots. Allvin said the candidate field had been large and diverse, but the turnout was disappointing.

The election at the UA had the largest turnout last year with 3,600 voting.

Angela DeSimone, executive vice president of ASASU, will assume the presidency and appoint a new vice president. Regularly scheduled elections for next year's officers will take place in late March or early April.