After publicly endorsing a party running for Student Senate, some members of the elections appeals committee might resign amid concerns that the committee is biased.
Student Senate’s three top executives — President Jesse Neader, Vice President Matthew Beddingfield and Treasurer Patty Roberts — have all endorsed the RSVP ticket for the May 18-19 elections. The executives also make up three-fifths of the Elections Special Appeals Committee, which decides the result of appeals to the Board of Elections’ decisions.
Early yesterday, Beddingfield said he would step down to avoid the appearance of bias on the committee but later said he had not decided whether he would or not.
“What I would be worried about if I were an outsider would be biased behavior, but there’s really no room for that on the committee,” he said. “Initially, I felt I should (resign) … As the day has gone on, I’ve become less and less sure.”
As of yesterday evening, Beddingfield was still unsure if he would resign.
Neader said there is no need for anyone to resign because all of the committee’s decisions abide by the rules, despite their personal feelings.
“People are mistaken in saying elections committees should be unbiased,” he said. “This committee, chaired by me, is a biased committee.”
The committee knows and applies the rules better than anyone else on senate, Neader said.
“I have applied every rule fairly to both sides,” he said. “If anybody finds anywhere where my rulings haven’t … fit Student Senate’s rules to a T, … then I will put a proxy in for chairperson.”
However, FACE presidential candidate Matthew Wallace said the elections process has not been fair to his party.
“I don’t think we’ve gotten anything close to an unbiased shake,” Wallace said, adding that Board of Elections decisions unfairly benefitted RSVP.
His opponent, RSVP presidential candidate Kyle Triplett, said that the committee is not biased toward his party.
“The appeals that we made for our candidates were shot down,” he said. “They apply the rules fairly.”
Both parties have filed appeals since campaign season began — FACE contested nine disqualifications and RSVP appealed three. The appeals committee upheld all 12 disqualifications.
Roberts was unavailable for comment.
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