Student government elections are something of a campus ritual. Unfortunately, accusations of violations are all too often a staple of the process.
In the latest elections, one violation ruling particularly caught our attention. Ernest Owens, a College freshman running for class president and Undergraduate Assembly, was accused of improperly helping students use the voting system. He allegedly brought his laptop to students in Hill dining hall, selected his own name and submitted students’ ballots for them.
The Nominations and Elections Committee ultimately disqualified Owens from the class board race — which he ended up losing — but allowed him to keep the UA seat he won. This ruling doesn’t make much sense. Either Owens engaged in inappropriate practices or he didn’t. Either he should’ve stayed a candidate for both positions or been disqualified from the elections altogether.
There were about three times as many UA candidates as there were seats. It’s not right for those who played fairly and lost to lose to a candidate who didn’t play fairly. Even if there was not enough evidence to show that Owens improperly helped people vote for the UA as well as for class president, the elections are too closely related for the impropriety not to taint his election to both positions.
UA members serve as liaisons between the student body and the administration. A representative who engaged in voter fraud is not worthy of a job with such a role.
