November 11, 2011

Minutes before the results of the Missouri Students Association presidential election were to be made public Wednesday night, the Board of Elections Commissioners made the decision to postpone announcing the winner until a formal investigation had been completed.

The BEC made the announcement via email as soon as the election officially ended.

“The Board of Elections Commissioners has made the decision to postpone the announcement of results for the presidential election pending a BEC investigation,” the email stated. “We have chosen to send this notification now as to not have an effect on the voting process.”

Following the announcement of the postponement, the BEC was given 48 hours to investigate claims against any of the three presidential campaigns. At 4:01 p.m. Thursday, the BEC announced its investigation was complete and they would announce the winners of the election at 5 p.m.

Before the BEC announced the results of the election, candidate and president elect Xavier Billingsley said he was anxious to hear who would become the next MSA president.

“To do everything that you’re supposed to (during the election) and get this in the end is kind of discouraging,” Billingsley said.

Fellow MSA presidential candidate Greg Loeffler said he would trust any decision the BEC made.

“Obviously we have nothing to do but trust in their judgment and know that they’ll make the right decision in the end,” Loeffler said.

Five days before the start of voting in the election, the Loeffler and Lauren Damico slate was cited for a minor infraction stemming from misplaced campaign posters in the Arts and Science building. Before Wednesday night’s announcement by the BEC, the infraction had been the only one to be announced.

After announcing the winner of the election Thursday night, BEC chairman Thomas Bourneuf said he was able to discuss what infractions had been investigated, but was unable to reveal the name of the slate that had been under investigation.

“About halfway through the election, we started receiving complaints from students stating that several girls had gone around and manipulated students into voting for a particular slate,” Bourneuf said. “The way that it was described to us was (the women) would go into a Greek house with a computer and essentially say (to) vote for a certain slate, and if you do we’ll give you candy. That itself wasn’t a problem.”

Bourneuf said the BEC became aware of the possible infraction during the second day of the election.

“One of the persons who complained stated that the girl took the computer after he had logged into the voting apparatus, selected the slate, even after he protested, and hit submit,” Bourneuf said.

Bourneuf said the BEC had received more than one complaint concerning the same group of women.

“We received several others, totaling four, at three separate fraternities,” Bourneuf said.

Earlier this academic year, the BEC added revisions to its handbook. Bourneuf said the BEC was looking at possibly having MSA controlled polling locations for next academic year, but the idea is still in development.

“The logic behind that would be voter turnout may be less, but it would be completely accurate,” Bourneuf said. “Part of the problem with the current system is that it’s not enforceable.”

The BEC Handbook dictates that two major infractions can lead to a slate being removed from the election ballot. According to the BEC Handbook, slates have 24 hours after they are issued the infraction to respond to the allegations.

“We decided when the complaints were coming in (that the BEC) didn’t have hard enough evidence to stop the election,” he said. “In order to do that we would have had to have overwhelming evidence. We decided to let the election run its course and postpone the results (of the investigation) as to not influence the election.”

Had the investigation found the allegations to be valid, the slate would have either been able to accept its punishment or appeal the charges. According to the BEC Handbook, if the charges had been appealed by the slate the MSA Student Court would have decided the case.

“What we decided was the best option was to postpone the announcement of the election so that we could conduct an investigation,” Bourneuf said. “Therefore we wouldn’t be interfering with the results.”

The BEC Handbook contains a section stating if a slate is found to be manipulating students into voting for a particular slate, the slate will immediately be expelled from the campaign.

“Essentially, what we discovered was we could not make a connection between the individuals doing the manipulation and the actual slate itself,” Bourneuf said.

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