Western Courier

Issue date: 4/10/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Adam Sacasa

Media Credit: Adam Sacasa

Media Credit: Adam Sacasa Sounds from the SGA election results

An uproar of controversy rang through the University Union yesterday, as the polls for the Student Government Association election were closed and tallied.

The Presidential and Vice Presidential race results were the main point of interest as it was announced that presidential candidate Darren Heard and running mate Chris Mortimer took the election over Tony Thomas and Nick McCay by a tight margin of 546-545 votes.

Thomas questioned why the voting poll on STARS closed "an hour early," an event he said could have changed the entire course of the election.

"I'm asking the elections committee and the attorney general to hold a special election because they closed the polls over an hour early," Thomas said. "We feel like they disenfranchised students. We've had more than six students call in and say they couldn't get in to vote. We want a recount or a special election."

Thomas claimed that the polls closed at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, an hour earlier than the projected time of 4:40 p.m.

"There's no explanation," Thomas said. "That's what was said, and that's what should have been done. Right is right and wrong is wrong."

If the Thomas-McCay camp wants to challenge the election results or demand a special election, they can provide a written complaint to the elections committee, according to SGA elections committee member Ryan Hamilton. He added that the elections committee can act as "a hearing board as provided the SGA bylaws and the constitution."

The second major issue brought to the table regarded the validity of the write-in vote in major election. This option allows students to write the names of their desired candidates rather than checking in the box correlated with the candidate's name.

"Another one of the issues here is basically if the write-in vote is valid, and to the best of my knowledge it most certainly is," said SGA Sentator-at-Large Josh Jefferson. "It's always been this way. There's always been the option for an individual to ballot himself.

"You can sign the petition. And that's what happened," he added. "There's a write-in space. In the event that someone doesn't check in the box, and choose to write in the name themselves, then we check that against the write-ins for the presidential position."

Hamilton added that both the ballots closing early and balloting process can be

investigated given the proper written complaint.

Thomas-McCay supporters supplied further complaints, such as the way the election was handled from the very beginning.

"I have a problem with the way the advisors held the election, the way the rules were taken out of the constitution, and how rules were not followed in the constitution," said SGA Senator Beric Wessely. "Once it comes to someone's GPA, they start following the rules. There was a lot of mudslinging during this election."

Student Tenant Union representative Thomas Swell added that he believes there is no room for school administrators in a student election.

"This was not run fairly, and they were using any underhand tactic that they could. It should be up to students and the Senate, not the administration," he said. "They're supposed to be here to make sure things run smoothly. You can't kidnap people's votes."

The Thomas-McCay camp closed the night with a statement suggesting further actions at the next SGA meeting.

"That's not going to work. We're going to bring it to the SGA," Thomas said. "We'll have people who were planning on voting come in and as a senate we will overturn the election committee, because as a senate we can do that and we will.

"At this point, there needs to be a special election, and I'll bring it from the floor from the senate, and that's all," he added.

In other elections, D'Angelo Taylor took the Board of Trustees election with a total vote count of 327, beating out Eric Haimann (310), James Ruppert (291), Russel Orrill (166) and Carlin Anderson (101).

"I feel pretty good that this election went great," Taylor said. "I did it all without spending one dollar. I stuck to my guns. I'm ready to make a change on campus and I'm going to implement my plan from day one."

Presidential winner Darren Heard also expressed much excitement at the end of the night.

"I knew it was going to be tight, but it all paid off in the end," Heard said. "I had a lot of fun campaigning and it was exciting to see it come down to one vote like it did."

According to the SGA elections committee, special elections for the senator-at-large positions will be held from April 20 at 8 a.m. through April 22 at 4 p.m. They said the special election is taking place due to "irregularities with balloting."

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