The presidential candidate for one Student Senate party said all nine disqualified members of his ticket will appeal the decision by tomorrow’s deadline.
There are nine FACE candidates ineligible for next month’s Student Senate elections, including four for judicial reasons. RSVP, with three members of its ticket deemed ineligible, has not yet announced whether it will appeal.
FACE’s candidates will protest their disqualifications to an elections appeals committee, headed by Student Senate President Jesse Neader, said the party’s presidential candidate Matthew Wallace.
Wallace said this year’s Board of Elections has been too strict compared to last year and had vague guidelines about what was a disqualifying offense.
“Last year, (the Board of Elections) actually gave candidates a chance to talk to them about why they may have made mistakes on their applications,” he said, adding that the only specific requirement regarding judicial qualifications is that the candidate abide by the OU Student Code of Conduct.
The Board of Elections can disqualify a candidate for a GPA below a 2.0, if he or she has fewer than 25 signatures and for a misreported GPA. Candidates may also be deemed ineligible if they are under sanctions for a Class A Code of Conduct offense.
Last year, some candidates were allowed to explain their mistakes to the board, which decided to allow them back in the race if they paid a $5 fine, Wallace said.
However, if the board took similar action this year, the fine would likely be more than $5 because of reforms to election rules passed earlier this year.
Board of Elections Chair Chauncey Jackson said the board’s decision to disqualify candidates with Class A Code of Conduct offenses was the right one.
“With all of the rules, it’s up to the Board of Elections to interpret what that means,” he said. “… I think that the board made a fair ruling. I will say that it was difficult.”
Initially, Dean of Students Ryan Lombardi told Wallace that all nine disqualified FACE candidates had reported their GPAs incorrectly. However, Wallace met with Lombardi this weekend and found out that four of the nine were out of the running for judicial reasons.
Three of the disqualified FACE candidates were charged with disorderly conduct — a Class A offense under the Code of Conduct — within the past year.
However, it is unknown if these students were disqualified for judicial reasons.
SAC at-large candidate Jeff Kiser and at-large candidate Joel Newby were found guilty of disorderly conduct, a minor misdemeanor. Greg Christo-Baker, a SAC at-large candidate, was found guilty of persistent disorderly conduct, a fourth-degree misdemeanor, according to Athens Municipal Court records.
“I’ve had to devote a little more time to writing appeals this past weekend,”
Wallace said, adding that he is hopeful that all nine candidates will be reinstated.
RSVP’s candidates might choose not to appeal, said presidential candidate and Student Trustee Kyle Triplett.
Three of the dozen disqualified senate candidates were running on the RSVP ticket. All three were disqualified for mistakes involving signatures on their petitions.
“We’re going to look at the applications in question,” Triplett said. “If we decide that the applications themselves warrant an appeal, we’ll go ahead and appeal.”
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