Senate field

By Jenna Youngs

Published March 14, 2008

Although 221 students applied as candidates for next year’s Missouri Students Association Senate, only 92 names might appear on ballots Monday when campus-wide voting begins.

According to the Board of Elections Commissioners election rules, candidates must complete an election training session prior to being certified as candidates. The BEC has held a number of sessions, but 129 students who filled out an online application for candidacy have not fulfilled the requirement.

BEC chairman Geoffrey Grammer said the BEC has no plans to sponsor any more training sessions, but will allow candidates to appear on the ballot if they turn in the required forms that acknowledge candidates understand the election rules “because that’s what Senate wants to happen.”

“We don’t want to eliminate people, but we’re following the rules provided by Senate,” he said. “We’ve sent e-mails and made phone calls to people asking if they’re still interested in running to please turn in their forms, and to let us know if they’re not interested in running anymore. The problem is they aren’t even responding.”

Some Senate members are unhappy that candidates could be disqualified for not attending a training session, and they filed a bill that would rewrite MSA’s bylaws to state that “candidates shall be required to attend training sessions before distributing campaign materials but shall not be disqualified solely for inability to attend,” according to the proposed bill.

Senate Speaker Jonathan Mays wrote the bill and said he did so because he does not want qualified candidates to be eliminated because of technicalities. The bill was co-signed by President Jim Kelley, Vice President Chelsea Johnson, three Senate committee chairpersons and both Senate clerks.

Mays said the bill would allow candidates to stay in the election without going through training, though those candidates would not be able to campaign to promote themselves.

“The BEC’s job is to make sure there is no unfair campaigning,” Mays said. “The mandatory training adds a sort of screening process to weed out candidates who don’t seem to care. I think that’s what voting is for.”

Mays said because the rule requiring mandatory training is written in the BEC’s rulebook and not in MSA bylaws, the BEC has the power to change the rule themselves, but the bill to change bylaws was filed in case the BEC refuses to do so.

“I applaud the BEC’s recent efforts to follow the rules they have and also to make sure candidates are qualified,” Mays said. “That said, one of the responsibilities of the BEC is to know when it’s necessary to change their rules to make the election fair. Prior BECs have amended rules to fit situations presented, and I’m hoping they make the effort to do so now.”

Grammer it would make sense to amend the bylaws for future elections to better handle large candidate turnout, but the new rules should not apply to this election.

“At this point it’s arbitrary to take away the training requirement because 92 candidates have already gone through it,” he said. “For other people to get on the ballot without training would be unfair, and it would ruin the integrity of the election to put 200 names on the ballot just for the sheer numbers. My personal feeling is that if a person is not responsible enough to attend a 30-minute session and not respond to e-mails, that person probably is not the right person to represent a school.”

Mays said giving every student a fair choice ensures integrity.

DoIT Director Terry Robb said it would be possible to change the ballot before Monday’s e-mail. The program used by DoIT places the voter automatically into the correct school or college in which the student is eligible to vote, he said.

Mays said he hopes the BEC would not change the ballots that have been submitted to DoIT, and plans to meet with BEC members today to discuss the issue.

“To me it’s unthinkable that at this point, knowing the issue is out there, that the BEC would try to change the ballot,” he said.

Mays said if he is unable to come to an agreement with the BEC, he would consider finding a way for Senate to convene and consider the bylaw revision bill before the ballots are e-mailed to students Monday.