insight
Good luck, Metro; another SGA election on the way
So there's all this crazy stuff you heard about last year's elections: Cloaks and daggers, poison lipstick and shit. And above all, those freaky radicals trying to thieve your apple pie, pretend Student Democracy.
I'll explain. Now you're gonna hear, like David Horowitz says, "the other side of the story."
Last spring, just prior to the beginning of voting, I resigned as SGA Election Commission chair.
I did it because I didn't think two factions-the SGA incumbents and the Auraria College Republicans-were playing fair, and were manipulating the process to unfairly spend a lopsided amount of money on what was, in effect, a single contested race.
When I attempted to rule on this entirely in accordance with EC bylaws, my meeting was mobbed and disrupted by SGA incumbents and ACR members, both of whom refused to take no for an answer.
Once I resigned, administrators canceled manual balloting. Our plan for paper ballots has frequently been cited as evidence of intent to "steal the election."
But our original plan was carefully designed to make voting easy, while preventing fraud. Administrators would have closely supervised the process. Many students have reported trouble with the online ballot system.
We were never going to "steal" anything-our interest was solely in obtaining the largest possible turnout. And if that had the effect of students voting a pack of incompetent slumber-partiers out of their little club, well, too bad.
The Metropolitan has reported that "Candace Gill would have won the election," but failed to report that her victory was the result of a disqualification. Candace Gill received just over 300 votes for SGA president compared to Zo‰ Williams' 1,180. The total number of votes cast at the infamous "polling station" was around 400, and some of them were almost certainly for Ms. Gill, which means that it didn't impact the outcome of the race.
It's time for these kids to own up to what happened: an overwhelming vote of "no confidence" in the present SGA.
And then there's the allegation that I didn't do my job as Election Commission chairman and "failed to recruit enough candidates." It's not true: last year's SGA repeatedly declared that it was their responsibility to recruit candidates to fill the new positions created by their shiny new constitution.
I assisted their effort by holding eight candidate information meetings, placing flyers all over campus, purchasing Metropolitan ads, and even extending the deadline for candidates to register.
While your six-digit student government sat in their cubicles lobbing spitballs and hate mails at one another, I authored the new election rules, met with candidates and administration, and planned for what I had hoped to be the most accessible voting in Metro's history. I expended a great deal of time and effort for no compensation whatsoever.
By contrast, the new commissioners are all paid. One was even rewarded for his cooperation last spring with a paid contract to construct the new SGA Website.
But believe it or not, I accept the rulings handed down by the Student Court this summer as the best possible resolution to a process that had run laughably amok. There will be another election, and God help you all. In the meantime, enjoy the show: priggish little backbiters more interested in merit badges and petty infighting than representing the student body.
