Kelley/Johnson announced as winners of MSA election
The results had been held due to pending Student Court cases.
Published Nov. 29, 2007
After 14 days, four hours and 17 minutes of uncertainty, the Missouri Students Association presidential election results were announced early this morning.
Jim Kelley and Chelsea Johnson were announced as President- and Vice President-elect at 12:17 a.m. The slate beat opposing slate Dustin Barker and Jessica Ekhoff by 16 percentage points of a total 3,954 votes cast.
As of press time, MSA Senate Speaker Jonathan Mays said he is awaiting certification of the votes.
BEC Chairwoman Amanda Morlock said the results will be certified today.
Wednesday marked the first hearing of the election. Former BEC Chairwoman Michelle Compton brought the case, which was filed against BEC, in front of the MSA Student Court.
Compton said BEC failed to investigate a violation after she discovered campaign fliers in Johnson's MSA mailbox during election campaigning time.
During testimony, Morlock said although Compton and MSA Vice President Andrew Cafourek showed her the fliers, she didn't feel the comment made to her in passing was serious, nor did she think it was "right" to violate potential privacy laws and M-Book rules in opening anyone's mail.
After hearing oral arguments from both Compton and BEC Representative Vaishnavi Palavii and witness testimony from Cafourek and Morlock, Student Court unanimously rejected Compton's request to reopen the investigation on the fliers.
The court ruled that the way Compton discovered the fliers was inappropriate.
"The evidence was improperly obtained, which damages the credibility of her case," the court's written decision stated.
But, the court also said Morlock was negligent.
"The chair was negligent in her duties by not starting an investigation of the case, since at the time, she was not certain that the information was improperly obtained," the court stated.
Ultimately, Student Court decided the investigation was not to be reopened, and it did not assess any additional fines or deduct points from the Kelley/Johnson slate.
Student Court also warned Compton that she might face disciplinary action from the Office of Judicial Services for "potentially violating" the M-Book.
There is no mention of a university policy in the M-Book regarding opening students' or staff members' mail. But breaking a state or federal law, such as tampering with mail, is an M-Book violation.
Once the court released its decision via e-mail, Rachel Crader, Kelley and Johnson's campaign manager, sent an e-mail to Student Court Chief Justice Drew Weber stating the slate had dropped their two appeals cases, which were originally scheduled to be heard tonight.
Ten minutes later, the court lifted its writ of injunction on the BEC, which was filed Nov. 14, to prevent the election results from being released for fear they might influence the Court's decision.
Once the election announcements were made, Barker said he had no regrets about the election.
"I'm happy," he said. "It turned out, and things happened for a reason."
Barker said he is interested in watching Kelley and Johnson's progress next year.
"They have a long year ahead of them," he said. "They said a lot of things during the election that they've got to make happen. They made a lot of promises."
Kelley could not be reached for comment.
The slate will take office in January.