ASG for Dummies
(Or, How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love Mark Kersey)
Here’s what happened of significance regarding the ASG elections at Wednesday’s senate meeting:
The election held on Tuesday has been declared null and void by the election committee, and this CANNOT BE OVERTURNED BY THE SENATE. We should all “pretend it didn’t happen”
Why? The short answer is that the power to validate and invalidate an election is the express province of the Election Committee, and the rules in the ASG constitution which allow it to overturn the rulings of a committee do not govern these specific duties. The constitution cannot be suspended because Robert’s Rules of Order say so. (Quoth Speaker of the Senate Ben Patterson: “In the past, we have suspended the bylaws errantly. This was wrong.”) For the specifics, check out Article 3, Section 7 of the ASG bylaws. The long answer would make your brain bleed.
This did not keep candidates from trying, however. Ariel Friedler paced the back of the ASG meeting like a caged animal, conferring heatedly with his campaign staff throughout the meeting. Academic VP candidates Manu Bhardwaj and Todd Connor attempted to ascertain the results of the previous election, with the agreement that both would stand by those results and accept the winner as the new Academic VP. This motion was not allowed because since the previous election “didn’t happen,” no results could exist. (Sound like quantum physics to anyone?)
New elections will be held next Tuesday, with runoffs next Thursday. Voting will be conducted ONLINE.
A motion was attempted to move to paper balloting, but this motion was voted down. Paper balloting would have required two weeks’ worth of preparation (to obtain materials, reserve space at the Rock, etc.).
The candidates may engage in verbal and electronic campaigning, but NO NON-VERBAL campaigning will be allowed. Any fines against the campaigns will be levied on the existing budget from the previous campaign week.
Jenny Moore (and others who wanted a fair election) fought hard for a $30 campaign budget for this mini-campaign week, but the motion was shot down. This means that write-in candidates, like Levi Wolfe, have complete ability to post flyers all over campus, while official candidates have no power to do anything but talk to everybody and keep their websites going. Clearly, this is a massive injustice that could produce unreasonably skewed results in the new election.
That’s about everything election-related, in as plain an English as we can summon. Many props to election judge Mark Kersey, who kept things clear and simple for Senate and stood firm under fire when things got hot. Check The Daily for details about the other juicy business that went down last night, that had nothing to do with the election.
—Matt Springer