The Student Senate Judiciary Panel will not be reopening applications for this year’s Senate election happening Sept. 14 and will only include formerly registered candidates on the ballot.
Problems arose when the Judiciary Panel was discussing whether or not to reopen the application, Casey Hall-Jones, former chief justice and interim associate justice, said.
A section in Senate’s Rules and Procedures gives the Panel the authority to “extend the deadline in extraordinary circumstances.” This does not explicitly include reopening applications once they are closed.
“Historically, the only thing the Judicial Panel has ever done is the deadline for candidacy has been extended by one week and by two weeks,” Hall-Jones said. “It’s established that we can extend and that extension is something that’s in our authority, but we’ve never reopened and it never specifically says that.”
The Panel concluded right now there would not be an extension, but a reopening of the applications, Hall-Jones said.
“Historically, what the purpose of extensions has been is to allow people who have failed to properly submit forms but submitted something time to properly submit those forms,” Hall-Jones said. “Most common scenario being an executive candidate submits exactly 75 signatures. Five of them are illegible so we can’t verify them and make it another week to find five more people, or have those five people rewrite them because we don’t know what it says.”
Presidential candidate Ian Carter and Vice Presidential candidate Elizabeth Lilly sent an application request for a new ballot that would change the positions they were running for.
Under chapter 13.08, Senate candidates who already filed by deadline may request extensions due to personal circumstances, Hall-Jones said. Both candidates sent in their own application request under chapter 13.08 because they did not feel comfortable running with Carlo DeNiro after allegations of sexual assault arose.
The Panel also did not know if there would be enough involvement from new candidates to justify reopening the application, Hall-Jones said.
Another reason for not reopening Senate election applications was to maintain fairness for candidates who already submitted their applications.
If the Panel intentionally delayed the election to reopen the application, it would be because the Panel didn’t think there were enough candidates, Hall-Jones said. Reopening the applications would purposefully reduce the original candidates’ odds of winning and therefore reduce their overall chance of winning.
“That’s not fair to them,” Hall-Jones said. “Can we justify to ourselves taking action that goes against the entire purpose of why we manage elections?”
While the application did not reopen, any student who wishes to be a part of Senate, or knows someone who would like to be part of this year’s or next year’s Senate, may write in their name on the ballot or apply for a position when it becomes available, Janie Peterson, Interim president, said.
The first open positions application will be available starting Sept. 16.
The difference between a write-in candidate and an independent candidate is that a write-in candidate is someone who has their name written onto the ballot instead of their name already being there, Hall-Jones said. Write-in candidates will not be invited to the debates because they were not originally on the ballot and do not have to submit financial report information.
“If a write-in candidate is reported to us under the current system, write-in candidates who engage in the act of campaigning and are reported to the Judicial Panel and are found to be campaigning can be barred from holding their position in the attempt to encourage people to actually properly register,” Hall-Jones said.
The differences between an independent candidate and a write-in candidate aided in the decision to not reopen the application, Hall-Jones said.
This year, students will receive an email with a link to the ballot to cast their vote in the election. Campaigning has already started and the debate responses will be shared with the student body next week, Peterson said.
