With senators dressed for the occasion, the Student Government Association’s Halloween-themed Senate passed bills designed to help campaigning students focus on their platforms and discussed giving control of the campaign packet to the Elections Board.
Max Zinner, graduate school senator, presented a bill to the senators that would allow campaigning students to visit student organizations a week before formal campaigning begins.
Zinner was dressed as the physical representation of Justice, complete with golden scales, a sword and a white blindfold.
Some students enjoy campaign week like Jack Hutcheson, senior in finance, who said he likes to see how much fun everyone has on the concourse.
Other students, like Grace Mckerley, sophomore in nutrition science and pre-med, said she will often avoid the concourse because of how hectic it can become.
“Expanding the time for organization visits makes candidates more accessible to student organizations and increases the number of organizations that a candidate could potentially visit,” Zinner said.
Elise Nicknish, junior in nutrition science, said she thinks this bill will allow campaigns to be less crazy because there will be more time for candidates to prepare and do their work.
“I think it’s a good way to spread your platform,” Nicknish said. “It can kind of be overwhelming on the concourse when there’s so many people, but if you’re someone who isn’t aware of the different candidates and stuff, it’s a good way to just see who’s out there.”
Jon Davis, senator for the College of Liberal Arts, expressed his support for a portion of this bill in a multicolored hippie costume.
Davis raised some concerns about the language of the bill saying that the Director of Elections can begin preliminary campaigning “at least one week prior to the start of formal campaigning.” Davis said this could be an issue for campaigning students who have to make sure everything is squared away, like their budget, before they start campaigning.
This would help campaigns not have to decide between a small student organization and a larger one, Davis said. He said he thinks the preliminary campaigning would have little effect over the lives of students.
“I believe that allowing candidates an extra week to do [organization] visits will allow them the opportunity to engage with more students on a personal level and will really help the student body be more informed,” said Bri Thomas, executive director of elections.
Davis proposed an amendment to the bill that would limit preliminary campaigning to a maximum of one week prior to the start of formal campaigning.
Zinner said he could not support such an amendment because it would limit organization visits too much. Once the vote began, the amendment failed.
Zinner called a 10-minute recess to write an amendment to the bill that would separate organization visits from other preliminary campaigning activities. This amendment and the bill were both adopted.
An amendment was presented to the senators that would give the Elections Board the responsibility of approving the campaign packet.
Mary Margaret Turton, senator for the College of Business, dressed in a Chewbacca onesie, said that giving control of the campaign packet to a third-party was a compromise.
She said the Elections Board is unbiased because it stays out of their elections.
Logically, it makes the most sense for the Elections Board to approve the campaign packet, Thomas said.
Thomas said Elections Board is in charge of dealing with violations against the Code of Laws regarding elections. She said the Elections Board would be able remove any potential code violations within the campaign packet before they became an issue.
Brad Smith, SGA advisor, said Thomas would have to give the campaign packets to candidates before 30 days had passed, so the bill wouldn’t affect this election cycle.
Smith said the SGA constitution states that changes to laws related to elections do not go into effect until after 30 days have passed since the bill was adopted.
Davis made a motion to return the bill to future orders, so they could discuss it more. The motion stood, and they will be voting on the bill next week.
“I kind of wish it were just a week instead of two, but I guess overall, if they’re going to be putting their platforms out there, then it could be beneficial if someone has a good platform for people to learn more about,” Mckerley said.
Zinner presented an amendment to the Code of Laws that would require SGA campaign platforms to be posted on SGA’s website one week prior to formal campaigning. Zinner said the amendment was designed to make sure the elections were about the platforms of the candidates and making those platforms easily accessible to students.
The amendment passed with no discussion.
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