MSA elections site down indefinitely

Students will not be able to vote for MSA president until at least next Monday.

By Megan Stroup

Published Nov. 11, 2008

The Missouri Students Association presidential elections were scheduled to begin last night at 6 p.m., but due to technical problems, the election will probably not begin until at least Monday.

The Board of Elections Commissioners decided to take the ballot offline at about 8 p.m. Monday because no votes were registered during the two hours the site was up, BEC Chairman Justin Mohn said. Mohn formerly worked for The Maneater.

Mohn said the BEC is working with the Division of Information Technology to correct the technical issues, but didn't know when the site would be back up.

"We don't want to tie ourselves to a date at this point," Mohn said.

Even earlier, the candidates had already reported election problems.

Presidential candidate Jordan Paul, running with Colleen Hoffmann, said he noticed many of his posters missing from the Arts and Science and Physics buildings around 7:30 a.m. Monday. He said he had permission to post fliers on the doors.

Paul chalked the missing flyers up to a mistake. He said a lack of communication between the building coordinators and the janitorial services, particularly the privately contracted services, possibly led to the problem.

Mohn said Paul contacted the BEC Monday morning to make them aware of the situation.

"We did a little checking into it ourselves," Mohn said. Without any evidence of who took down the posters, Mohn said the board hasn't taken action.

Another presidential slate, Phyllis Williams and Jonathan Snipes, filed a complaint Monday against Paul/Hoffmann for putting campaign flyers on the glass doors at Arts and Science and Middlebush halls, saying it was a violation of the BEC handbook.

Paul said he and Hoffmann filled out the proper forms to get permission from the building manager.

"Having looked into the issue thus far, we've determined the wording in the handbook provides discretionary powers to the building managers," Mohn said.

He said typically the windows of the doors are restricted areas, but at the time of the interview he was satisfied that the building managers provided Paul/Hoffmann with sufficient permission.

Williams said the BEC showed her Paul/Hoffmann's forms for posting in the Arts and Science Building. The building coordinator had signed the forms, saying it was OK to post on doors.

After receiving an e-mail from her campaign manager, Clint Birdsong, Williams said she interpreted Paul/Hoffman's forms as permitting the candidates to post on the classroom doors, which are solid wood, not the glass doors.

"My issue is the university business policy that says nothing can be placed on glass on any of the buildings," Williams said.

She added the rule does not have exceptions, because it is a fire and health hazard.

The third presidential candidate Joe Fessehaye, running with Lindsey Abell, said he also found it odd that Paul/Hoffmann were allowed to post materials on the Arts and Science Building doors.

Fessehaye said he spoke to Reeves on Friday about placing posters in Arts and Science Building, and was told Paul/Hoffmann had been ordered to take their posters down because the tape was difficult for the custodial staff to remove.

The Fessehaye/Abell slate also ran into a problem with late forms in their campaign. Mohn said the pair received a negligent infraction for turning in two forms more than 14 days late.

"We deemed it was an accidental fine," Mohn said, adding they imposed no additional penalty on the slate.

The forms dealt with non-monetary business donations, which Fessehaye said his slate did not seek.

"We thought the forms were irrelevant because our campaign didn't pertain to them," Fessehaye explained, adding that he and Abell eventually turned them in with only their names and "$0" printed on them.