Despite results from this year’s Associated Student Body elections being announced on Tuesday, March 26, with a runoff to take place today — Thursday, March 28 — the election was not without problems. Issues ranged from students struggling to cast votes, technical difficulties and one candidate being left off the ballot at the start of the morning.
The ASB Department of Justice and Judicial Council have been conducting Elections Review Board hearings, ASB President Sara Austin Welch said. Title V Subtitle D Rule 7 Number 11 of the ASB Constitution and Code mandates that the results of such hearings be publicly disclosed after the completion of the election cycle. ASB President Sara Austin Welch and Interim Attorney General Sydni Davis declined to comment on Elections Review Board proceedings.
“It is necessary to adhere to the requirements of the code to protect our candidates’ privacy and wait until the conclusion of the complete election season, which encompasses the runoffs on March 28th,” ASB President Sara Austin Welch said. “The Department of Justice and Judicial Council have been diligently conducting consecutive hearings that have extended into the late hours of the night and early morning. Our aim is to complete this task within the upcoming week, taking into consideration the upcoming holidays of Good Friday and Easter.”
When election results were announced on March 26, the results of many of the senate races were left out, including the seats for National Panhellenic Council, Student Governance, Special Interest, School of Law, School of Pharmacy and School of Nursing.
An ASB post on Wednesday night stated that the following Senate categories will also be open for voting during tomorrow’s runoff election: special interest, student governance, National Panhellenic Council and graduate school.
Welch said that many of these winners were not announced due to technical issues that restricted ASB’s access to the ballot on MyOleMiss. ASB was still attempting to get access to these results the following morning.
“We went in to look at the write-ins, as well as senior class (elections), last night,” Welch said. “We weren’t able to see them. Since 8 a.m. this morning, we were working with them (IT) to actually get the ballot.”
The Daily Mississippian reached out to the University of Mississippi IT Department for comment, but they did not respond by the time of publication. In addition to certifying elections and accounting for all write-in candidates, Welch said that ASB is looking into the accuracy of the results and is considering redoing the senator election.
“We’re looking into, like, if we think there has been anything, like if they’re (the results) wrong,” Welch said. “We’re looking into saying, ‘Okay, we’re not opposed to doing a rerun, especially for our write-in candidates,’”
Some newly elected senators expressed concern that multidisciplinary studies and freshman studies students were not able to cast online ballots in the senate races, while they could in the executive board races.
“Every student under multidisciplinary studies, freshman studies and a whole general studies umbrella didn’t have access to the online ballot for the senate because, technically, we’re not classified under schools,” Troy Christian, an incoming campus equity and advocacy senator, said. “So, in order for us to vote, we have to go into the office physically in the student union, and that can be very inconvenient. Personally, if I was in an apartment complex, and I didn’t have class today, I wouldn’t have come and voted.”
Incoming cultural/multicultural senator Eli Keel shared an anecdote from a friend, highlighting the inconvenience that general studies students faced in casting votes.
“I had a friend who wanted me to send him the link to go to www.myolemiss.edu and vote, so I sent it to him,” Keel said. “He’s in freshman studies, so he said it’s not working. Well, this was a bad time (for him to vote in person). He told me that it was five o’clock, and he wasn’t going to go.”
Welch said that students encountering this issue received a message on MyOleMiss telling them to call or email the union office or visit https://www.olemissasb.org/ and that ASB was actively working to assist those students.
According to Welch, there have been technical issues with past elections, but numerous ASB members stepping down from their positions to run was a learning curve this year.
“This year we had a lot of people step down (to run),” Welch said. “I don’t believe that them stepping down was a problem. I think it’s better they stepped down because obviously — conflict of interest. I do believe there’s always a learning curve.”
In addition to technical issues, Tyren Boyd, a candidate for liberal arts senator, was scrambling early on Tuesday morning to get his name back on the ballot.
This was in response to him receiving notification from Davis that he was in violation of the ASB Code for going over budget on his campaign and was being called to an Election Review Board hearing. Despite not being disqualified, his name was not on the ballot at 7 a.m. when polls opened.
Boyd’s name was missing from the ballot for over an hour. Davis confirmed to Boyd at 8:07 a.m. via text message that his name had been added to the ballot. In the end, Boyd lost by three votes according to numerical results obtained by The Daily Mississippian.
“I think that hour that was lost could have possibly changed the results,” Boyd said. “However, it’ll be all okay. If they say that’s what it is, then of course, we’re going to go by based on what we’re told.”
For now, Boyd is not contesting the results.
“At this time, I’m not going to move forward,” Boyd said. “If something was done wrong in this election, those parties will pay for that…I just know that I ran a very clean election. The results are in and it just didn’t fall in my favor.”
When asked, both Davis and Welch declined to comment on Boyd being left off of the ballot, or his ERB hearing.
Boyd received an email on the evening Monday, March 25 from Davis stating that he was in violation of Title V.c Section 123 (H) 1-2 of the ASB Code.
V.c Section 123 (H) 1 reads as follows: “If the overspent amount is found to be blatantly and grossly in excess of the spending limit (defined as 10% or more over the spending limit) the candidate shall be disqualified.”
According to V.c Section 123 A of the ASB code, candidates for senate are allotted $100 dollars for their campaign. Boyd spent more than that, as he was under the impression that donations did not count towards the total.
Boyd said that he was allowed to remain on the ballot by turning in campaign materials like stickers and t-shirts to ASB. According to Boyd, this acts as a liquidation of assets and keeps him under budget.
“I had t-shirts that I had to void and the rest of my stickers and when they took all that, it brought me under the $100 limit in order to be qualified to run and be in compliance with the budget,” Boyd said.
This method of resolution is not in the ASB Code or Constitution.
When asked if she thinks Tuesday’s elections were free and fair, Welch gave the following response.
“From the bottom of my heart, I think that is what we always worry about,” Welch said. “A lot of times (ASB is) kind of the same people and you see people who are very, very willing and ready to help each other. It is hard to look at somebody that you love and adore and you believe in and say you broke the rules and you’re done.”
She applauded those running elections for putting the election’s integrity above their personal bias.
“I have been amazed by people’s strength and ability to just put their thoughts and feelings on the back burner,” Welch said.
Noah Walters contributed reporting.
