I edited this story written by Miranda Davis, restructuring it, identifying the year and hometown of the sources and fixing other errors or rewording phrases. Originally published in the Aug. 25, 2014 University Daily Kansan.
Student Senate results overriden, re-election required
The Student Senate executive staff – Morgan Said, a senior from Kansas City, Mo., Miranda Wagner, a senior from Shawnee, and their hired officers – has been removed from office.
Emma Halling, a senior from Elkhart, Ind. and former student body vice president, is acting as interim student body president until new leadership is determined with a re-election.
In a decision released Friday, the University Judicial Board Appeals Panel overrode the results of the current Student Senate election and required a re-election of Student Senate positions, including President Said and Vice President Wagner, in the coming weeks.
The Panel met Wednesday to hear an appeal that argued that the results were distorted because all votes for Jayhawkers, whose members were disqualified in April, were not counted. The Panel agreed in its decision and determined the Elections Commission should hold a re-election.
“We conclude that the only reasonable reading of the Election Code is that, first, the election results were ‘materially altered by a violation of the Code,’ and, second, a new election is required,” the Panel said in its decision, signed by chair Thomas Stacy and Panel members Michelle Ginavan Hayes and Lisa Wolf-Wendel.
The decision says the Commission has flexibility in determining the rules of the new election:
“We stress that although the Code plainly requires a new election in cases such as this, it does not specify rules for the conduct of such an election. This means that the Commission necessarily has a large range of discretion in adapting and interpreting the Code for this purpose. It also means that many challenges to the Commission’s conduct of the new election must surmount of the very high bar of showing that Commission has abused its discretion.”
The Panel also mentions on page four and five of the decision that “the only reasonable means of eliminating . . . irrelevant guesswork, given that approximately 60% of the voters cast votes for the Jayhawkers candidates, is to ask those voters which eligible candidate they prefer. And the only feasible mechanism for doing this is to hold a new election.”
The appeal heard on Aug. 21 was brought to the Panel by Eli Hymson, a sophomore from Parkland, Fla. It was denied by the Student Senate Court of Appeals on May 2, the 2,662 votes for Jayhawkers were nullified, and Student Senate executive staffmembers took office in May.
The disqualification of Jayhawkers stems from a violation brought to the Commission by Grow KU about an incomplete financial report after a member of the coalition allegedly purchased Chipotle for other members on March 30.
On April 8, the Elections Commission disqualified the entire Jayhawkers coalition. Because this happened the night before the election, Jake Rapp, a graduate student from Lawrence and then-chair of the Commission, said he kept the Jayhawkers on the ballot because they had the right to appeal within 48 hours of the decision, which they filed April 9.
The Student Senate Court of Appeals announced April 10 it would not hear the appeal as there was a potential conflict of interest. It deferred the appeal to the University Judicial Board Appeals Panel, which upheld the decision to disqualify Jayhawkers on April 24.
The Commission released the unofficial results, which did not include Jayhawkers candidates, on April 27. It certified the election and released the full results, with Jayhawkers included, on April 29.
The full results showed that MacKenzie Oatman, a senior from Wichita, and Mitchell Cota, a senior from Overland Park, presidential and vice presidential candidates for the disqualified Jayhawkers coalition, received 61.4 percent of the vote, Said and Wagner of Grow KU received 31.6 percent, and Kevin Hundelt, a senior from St. Louis, Mo., and Sara Anees, a senior from Wichita, of Crimson & True received 6.9 percent.
Moving forward, the Elections Commission will meet this week to set parameters for the upcoming Student Senate re-election, according to Mark Pacey, a graduate student from Manhattan and the acting chair of the Elections Commission. They will have to decide who is allowed to participate in the re-election. He said he hopes to hold the re-election as soon as possible.
Pacey said he thinks the election will only be between candidates that participated in last year’s election and were not disqualified — meaning only members of Crimson and True and Grow KU — as the decision to disqualify members of Jayhawkers was upheld by the Panel in April. He said at this time, no new coalitions can be formed.
Oatman said she does not believe this is the correct understanding of the Appeals Panel’s decision and would like to see an entirely new election.
“What needs to happen is a new election needs to be held where new candidates can come, new coalitions can form and it doesn’t have to be just the people who were on the ballot. That’s how I read ‘new election,’” Oatman said.
Halling said she plans to meet with Tyler Childress, a law student from Coffeyville and last year’s chief of staff, and Reuben Perez, director of Student Involvement Leadership Center, to clarify the exact course of action based on Student Senate Rules and Regulations.
She said Marcus Tetwiler, a graduate from Paola and last year’s student body president, left in May and for that reason she has stepped into his role. For the same reason, Childress will resume his position as chief of staff.
Said said she is confident in Halling’s ability to lead the student body until a new president is elected.
“I will say that we are complying with what’s been mandated and will continue to have the student body’s interests in mind,” Said said.
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