Students label elections unfair

Senate elections have been called into question by a group of students, including 13 nominees.

Nominated students came together to oppose the short notice of the elections. A letter endorsed by five students, first-year Marissa Ramirez, sophomore Kristen Keniray, junior Katie Shorb, sophomore Jackleen Labbad and first-year Ben Joffe-Walt, declared the short notice "a major problem and unfair to nominated students."

"We do not believe that the elections were structured this way to intentionally favor current senators, but that is what has happened and it needs to be changed," the letter stated. It pinpointed the notification of nominees.

The Wednesday notification of nominees and the Thursday deadline for candidate statements and organizational endorsements, in just over a 24 hour period, was "a simple impossibility." Senators running for reelection had an unfair advantage, the letter continued. They referred to posters put up Thursday afternoon by incumbent sophomore Aaron Leavy. This occurred before statements and endorsements were due.

Leavy spoke of his own experience. "I had not received email of my official nomination [until the other nominees did]," he said. His posters were up by Thursday afternoon, he mentioned, only because he started working on them after he received word of his candidacy for reelection.

Leavy also offered the viewpoint of several senators. "Constitutional process is being followed," he said about the controversy. In Senate bylaws, it states that senators must immediately hold elections when more than three senators resign. This part of the bylaws played out when first-year senator Sandor Winkler gave his resignation in Sunday's meeting.

Sophomore senator Noah Kirshbaum was hesitant to agree with this view. He said that he represented a minority of senators who felt that elections were not completely fair. "[The students with concerns] have good points in their grievances," he said. Kirshbaum realized that there might be a problem when he noticed that that several people on the ballot were nominated but had declined. "There wasn't good communication between senators and prospective candidates," he said.

"It's more an issue of justice and what is right," said Keniray. "Which is why we are wanting groups of historically marginalized groups to take part," added Joffe-Walt. The two, as well as Shorb and Ramirez, said the concerned nominees represented the under- represented groups on campus like La AlianzaLatina, people of color and the lesbian, gay and transsexual communities.

This would be "a movement to secure the needs of marginalized people." Their election to Senate, they agreed, will be directly correlated to organizational endorsements. The endorsements would show candidate's close relationship to certain underrepresented groups making organizational endorsements especially weighty. The short notice would make it very difficult for the candidates to get those endorsements.

Leavy and former first-year senator Chris Anton disagreed. They both said that organizational endorsements held little weight in elections.

"I almost feel bad for these people, but this has been so public," said Anton. He noted that the upcoming elections were announced in the Review several weeks ago. "Rules require us to hold elections for 10 days," he added. If the elections were postponed for a week, as the other nominees asked, then they would run into finals.

"If students want Senate to be taken seriously then we need to allow the time for serious campaigns," the last line of the letter states.

This questioning of elections has the possibility of tarnishing Senate's record. Elections started today and will continue for 10 days or until 20 percent of the student population votes.