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After setbacks, SGA gears up for special election
By Barbara Hernandez
bhernan5@mscd.edu

Metro’s newly appointed election commission wants to stock the student government cabinet before semester’s end.

The Student Government Assembly appointed four election commissioners on Nov. 8 to plan and execute a special election, a $2,000 endeavor.

Commissioners will run the election for a new vice president, three senators and a representative to the Student Advisory Committee to the Auraria Board.

Senator Kurt White and the interim vice president Carlos Lopez, who also served as a senator, resigned in November. Jordan Bair, the SACAB representative, resigned in September. The vice president position has been vacant since May and is on the ballot because a formal candidate was never brought forward by the SGA president.

At the Nov. 8 senate meeting, the SGA agreed to remove Senator Akaduchieme Kendrick for violating the attendance policy.

Election commissioners Jason Doyle, Richard Balbag, Kalilah Shelton and Sitges Manning were appointed to the commission on Nov. 8 and are expected to have a complete list of candidates for the special election ballot by Nov. 21, said SGA President Jack Wylie. Wylie added Kerri Dunagan as a fifth commissioner on Nov. 15.

Voting begins the week before finals, leaving candidates a week to campaign for the election.

“Candidates should have an equal opportunity to campaign,” Dunagan said. “Students should have an equal opportunity to learn about the candidates and the election.”

Through MetroConnect, the commission plans to announce the vacancies with attached intent-to-run forms and a job description, said Doyle, who chairs the commission. Students who wish to run can also pick up hard copies of the intent-to-run form in the Student Activities office or the SGA office.

As mentioned in the SGA Election Commission Policies and Procedures, “All voting shall only be conducted by electronic voting.” Voting instructions will be posted on the MetroConnect website. When logged into MetroConnect, students will be able to vote by clicking the “My Services” tab to enter the voting polls.

The election commissioners started organizing two days after being appointed.

“We set a timeline,” Doyle said. “Our biggest priority right now is making sure everybody knows we’re accepting the intent-to-run forms, and that we’re trying to get as many candidates as possible.”

Doyle said a lot of the normal rules and laws have been amended because the election has been shortened.

Each election commissioner will receive a salary of $250 per election, an amount they negotiated with Wylie. The SGA Election Commission Policies and Procedures states that commissioners must be students and cannot be involved in the student government in any other way.

“We’ve always needed election commissioners,” Wylie said. “When I sent the e-mail out, it was actually kind of amazing. I usually don’t get a big response. A lot students don’t read their e-mail, but close to 25 or 30 people sent some kind of e-mail back.”

Wylie conducted about 10 interviews and selected the final five based on qualifications mentioned in the SGA Election Commission Policies and Procedures.

“The biggest requirement was to be able to be around to actually do the election,” Wylie said.
Qualified students must have a 2.0 GPA and be enrolled in a minimum of six credit hours. The new election commission will also conduct spring elections, as its members retain their positions for two semesters.