Stakeholders in the Student Government Association election process said changes need to be made to the current elections code to combat problems seen in this year’s election.
Alex Sventeckis, elections board chairman, said the code does not cover everything that happened during the election.
“There are complications you can’t foresee,” he said. “Beginning this semester, [we] need to look into what vulnerabilities exist and where can we plug in gaps and give more resources and tools to elections board.”
Jennifer Jones-Hall, director of Student Life, said she would like to see a statement in SGA’s bylaws, constitution or elections code about the involvement of the standing executive board.
She said the standing executive board members should not endorse or work with slates, outside of explaining the responsibilities of their position.
“I think that that was really difficult this year, and we haven’t had that many problems until this year where it was a little convoluted,” Jones-Hall said.
During the elections, Cardinal Connection was investigated for communication with Alyssa France, current SGA vice president. No violation was found because any communication did not technically violate elections code.
Jones-Hall said she would like to see a faculty or staff member added to the elections board, in addition to her role as an adviser.
“A lot of schools do [have a staff voting member on the elections board],” she said. “As an adviser, I don’t have a vote. I think it would be really important for someone who has a vote to be on the board.”
Such a move has not been considered by SGA in the past, Jones-Hall said.
Sventeckis and Jones-Hall said the code should include an appeals process for election results.
This year, election results were postponed for more than two hours while the elections board met. When the results were announced, Cardinal Connection won against Empower, but was also fined the maximum amount: $400.
Members of Empower expressed their frustration with the fairness of the election result with the fine.
There is no procedure in the elections code for contesting election results and the elections board disbands the Friday following the election.
Sventeckis said a provision should be added to accommodate postponing election results, a vote recall or an emergency election.
He said after the voting, the holes in the elections code were a complication when making decisions.
“It can be difficult when we are tasked with carrying out elections code explicitly and we aren’t given maximum number of tools — it makes our job more difficult,” he said.
During this year’s election, candidates were told to behave in compliance with the Student Code of Conduct, but Chloe Anagnos, current SGA president, said that addition was never actually written into the code, which is something she wants to correct.
“It wasn’t written down; I guess I overlooked it,” Anagnos said. “We didn’t have any problems but [we need] a blanket statement, so if someone does something they aren’t supposed to, [it can be reprimanded].
The elections code is typically revised every year in the Fall Semester.
Jones-Hall said she would like to see Anagnos and the SGA Rules and Constitution Committee make changes this semester before the new executive board is inaugurated in late April.
“Part of the difficulty is, after election is over, they’re very tired and don’t want to look at the document again,” Jones-Hall said. “The only reason I want to see it happen [now] is it’s still fresh in everyone’s mind. It would be good practice [to start revising code in the spring].”
Anagnos said she wants to make changes to the elections code during her last three weeks as president.
“If I can get that done in three weeks,” Anagnos said. “I would like to finish it out in my term so Cardinal Connection doesn’t have to deal with that.”
Cardinal Connection’s appeal
After the election, Cardinal Connection indicated it would contest its $400 fine. The fine concerned emails that Nick Wilkey, slate president, sent using Ball State’s computing system on the Monday of elections. The email in violation was sent out to Dance Marathon committee members, soliciting their votes.
Wilkey said he did not know his action was in violation of the elections code.
Anagnos said she wants to clarify in the elections code what “campaign materials” specifically means, so there will be no confusion in the future.
Under elections code, any fine appeals after the elections board disbands are handled by the SGA Judiciary Committee.
Jones-Hall decided to pass the appeal to the Office of Student Rights and Community Standards.
“[The Office of Student Rights and Community Standards] will pull together truly a non-biased student group to hear the appeal — people who are not affiliated,” she said.
Jones-Hall said every person on the judiciary committee who is in SGA Student Senate worked on a slate, and she questioned the committee’s ability to make a fair decision.
Empower’s vice presidential candidate Gabrielle Bunn serves as secretary of justice on the committee.
The office will likely hear the appeal this week, Jones-Hall said.
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