A run-off election for eight Senate seats will be held
April 22 through April 24, a Monroe Park Campus
Student Government Association representative said
Wednesday.
After the SGA elections were held two weeks
ago, voter complaints about the online legislative
ballot prompted an investigation. Chair of Elections
Angela Bitter said “ballot manipulation” was found
to be the problem.
Wednesday’s decision to hold a new election was
a compromise, Bitter said, and it was conceived to
be as fair as possible for both the candidates who
appeared on the ballot and the ones whose votes
might not have been registered because they were
running write-in campaigns.
“We found out the problem with the ballots was
not a technical problem,” Bitter said. “With the (SGA)
bylaws, people are only allowed to vote for one
write-in candidate. So, the only vote that registered
was the first one you clicked on, but not the others.
So, if (write-in candidates) weren’t the first person
that person voted for, it didn’t count.”
Bitter said the top 17 candidates have been confirmed
as senators. These include the candidates whose
names appeared on the ballot and who received the
most votes.
The run-off election will be held among write-in
Senate candidates, and their names will be printed
on the ballot to avoid previous issues with write-in
votes, Bitter said.
“The reason it was such a problem this time is we
had so many write-in candidates, and people assumed
that they could vote for several,” she said.
Meanwhile, the SGA’s April 2 ruling in favor of
Jibran Muhammad, Adam Sowder and Solle Taghavi
names the ticket as next semester’s confirmed executive
representatives, although executive-director candidate
Joshua Ronk, who is on the opposing executive ticket,
has until Saturday to appeal the ruling against his
grievance alleging voter intimidation by Muhammad’s
campaign.
The justices’ unanimous ruling stated the campaign
was not responsible for the actions of those unofficially
connected with the ticket, and none of the witnesses
called during the hearing could place Muhammad,
Sowder or Taghavi at the scenes of the questionable
incidents.
Ronk has not yet decided if he will file an appeal
but said the ruling is contrary to SGA standards.
“Although I am frustrated over the court loss, it
is not because I or my party lost,” Ronk stated in
an e-mail. “I am frustrated because … the Judicial
Branch has failed to make a ruling that reflects the
SGA bylaws. At the election meeting I attended, I was
told with great emphasis, ‘You are responsible for not
only what you do on your campaign but what your
supporters do.’ “
Muhammad said he now will focus on fulfilling his
campaign promises.
“I’m glad the judicial board made a unanimous
decision in my favor. The elections are over now. I
am officially the student-body president. I have a lot
of work to do.”
That work, Muhammad said, includes telling students
how they can get involved with his administration
– possibly by serving on his cabinet – and by letting
students know other ways they can get involved with
the process of student government.
The run-off election will begin April 22 at 8 a.m. and
will end April 24 at 8 a.m. All enrolled students are
eligible to vote.