UPDATE: A Spark Forward has been named the next Ball State Student Government Association executive board after a controversial election.
Nearly 5,000 students voted in this year's election compared to 2,199 last year. A Spark Forward picked up 2,189 votes in the victory.
Cardinal United trailed by 220 with 1,969 votes, followed by Fusion with 827 votes.
Malachi Randolph, SGA president-elect said he felt humbled to have won the election.
"I felt I did not carry this slate and usually the presidential candidate carries the slate," he said. "When they said we won it was a weird feeling because [my slate] carried me...that sounds scripted but I felt humbled."
Nick Wilkey, vice president of Fusion was disappointed in the loss by said he is still supportive of A Spark Forward.
"We worked really hard on this stuff and we are really passionate about it so when we got the news it was kind of a shocker to us," he said.
Zeyne Guzeldereli, presidential candidate for Cardinal United, said even though the election is over, the work for next year needs to begin now.
"I’m still the president pro-temp so it is something I’m going to continue taking the responsibilities and making sure the election code is up to par next year so the same mistakes don’t happen again," he said.
UPDATE: As of 9:30 a.m., all problems pertaining to voting for SGA executive board were fixed, according to Kevin Thurman, elections board chair.
Kevin Thurman, SGA elections board chair, said students wishing to vote off campus were unable to do so until approximately 2:15 p.m. Monday due to a permission error within the program.
“I want to clarify that no slate in any way helped to remedy the situation,” Thurman said, following tweets by Cardinal United, who took credit for addressing the problem with Office of Student Life first. “It was brought to my attention by several members of each slate, and I feel it is unethical and misleading for any one slate to take credit.”
Thurman said more issues with voting off campus were reported late Monday evening, and those problems would be addressed the next morning with Unified Technology Services.
Cassy Swanson, Spark campaign manager, said she believes the technical issue presented a problem and may have swayed people not to vote because they did not know they had to be on the Ball State secure connection and may have thought they just could not vote.
With elections only open for two days, it is important for each slate to push students to vote but also inform them of the importance of SGA, Swanson said.
She said Spark was focused on social media to get the word out, and she believes Spark had strong branding but needed to make sure voters knew what their platform stood for.
“Students may know the parties’ names but don’t know they can vote or what exactly student government is,” Swanson said.
Kayleigh Mohler, Fusion campaign manager, said her slate had visited several dining halls, including the Atrium and L.A. Pittenger Student Center, and talked with several students who were unaware of the elections. Fusion worked to encourage students to familiarize themselves with SGA and the slates.
“Lots of students asked what Student Government was,” Mohler said. “But I also met a lot of students who said they had already voted which was encouraging.”
Nick Wilkey, Fusion vice-presidential candidate, said several students did not even know SGA existed, and his experience as senator gave him the ability to explain the impact SGA has on students. Several students he talked to actually want to become senators, something he said is possible because Fusion is focused on talking to each student individually.
“Having a personal connection with the students is the major point of Fusion,” Wilkey said. “They can get a better view if you are talking with them instead of talking at them.”
Swanson said Spark spoke in three Communications 210 halls Monday and reached roughly 300 students, most of whom were freshman.
“Our main goal was to make sure they knew what student government is,” Swanson said. “Make sure that in the future they can understand it and be a part of it.”
Brandon Pope, Cardinal United’s treasurer candidate, said the recent controversy surrounding an anonymous Twitter account has made the members of Cardinal United stronger in their campaign.
“I will be honest, I think it has strengthened our resolve, when we were accused of this on the brink of our hard work falling apart—a lot of tears that day—we really grew closer as a slate and grew closer as people,” Pope said.
He said his slate had spent the day blanketing the area, setting up laptop booths or iPads to allow students to vote and also be informed. He said the entire slate combined had at least 100 students vote with their system.
Mohler mentioned Monday and today are the final days for the slate to campaign and really educate students about the significance of their vote.
“We have organized for the past three weeks, so [it’s] just time to go out and talk to people,” she said.
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