[Chad]

Open Election Forum Discussion Gets Heated

CHAD FULLERTON, MACINSIDERS

If you haven't already done so, be sure to check out the Facebook group started by Jerimi Jones regarding the MSU elections. While some say that the forum is biased, seeing as how Jerimi is the group administrator and has the ability to moderate the wall posts (though after some backlash he brought 'Neil DePass' on board as 'official' moderator), the discussion and information being posted to it is heating up as frequent posts from Ryan Moran (MSU President), Jerimi (Candidate, First President-Elect), Jeff Ferguson (SRA, Elections Committee Member), Fiona Simpson (McMaster Alumni), and Joey Coleman ('Expert on Student Politics', Macleans) bring up key issues worthy of discussion.

In the past few days the group has jumped to over 225 members and continues to grow as students voice their opinions on the issues surrounding the election procedures, the disqualification of Joel, the troubling re-count numbers, and possible future solutions.

The hot topics that have risen in the discussion seem to be...

1. Missing Ballot Conspiracies: What happened to those missing ballots in the second recount? Was it human error? A mistake? 'Tampering'? How did any go missing when the boxes are locked? What were the new criteria for re-counting the spoiled ballots, making them un-spoiled?
2. Openess and Transparency: Why does everything feel so non-transparent when there were scrutineers for each candidate who should have made sure no 'shady' business occurred? Shouldn't the scrutineers be able to set the record straight with what happened during the re-counts?
3. Communication: Bringing up the issue of the lack of communication between the MSU and the Student population
4. Re-counts vs. Re-election: Will/should another election be held?
5. Disqualification Reasoning: Why has no official satisfactory announcement been made with the details of Joels disqualification for breaking too many rules?
6. Accountability/Future Solutions: How can this be prevented in the future, how can the Elections Committee be held more accountable?
7. Comparing MSU to other university election processes
8. Policies: bringing up policies and advocating they be followed and/or changed (especially policy over spoiled ballots)
9. Level of bias: people saying one person is biased over another, etc. etc. etc. etc.

Ryan Moran has commented on the wall and attempted to answer some of the hot questions:

• "the disqualified candidate was disqualified with good reason by the elections committee as it was stated, due to the nature and sheer volume of violations brought against their campaign, and until a final decision is made by the Elections Appeal Board, a third party group made up of students and faculty members, that is unfortunately all the info that can be released for the protection of that candidate, and not to satisfy an apparent desire of some to defame and gossip"
• "The CRO resigned for personal reasons related to stresses of the job."
• "No ballots went missing from any box, with scrutineers and elections committee members involved all boxes were seen to be appropriate and untampered with, hence the need for a recount before taking any further action on this election process as a whole. Obviously questions remain and that is precisely the reason of this third recount, to answer them before taking any decision to accept the results or invalidate the election process."
• "As i stated about the disqualified candidate, for the protection of that individual, their disqualification and any reasoning behind it, cannot be elaborated on until the Elections Appeal Board deliberates on the matter, which i believe is taking place this Friday. Only then can the elections committee discuss the issue again, and any information surrounding it. The last candidate to get disqualified was in the late 1990s, so of course there has not been a situation since where any information surrounding a disqualification would be released... because there hasn't been a disqualification since that time, and as long as the appeal period continues, information cannot be released.
  
  As for walking up to the MSU office and asking questions, you can ABSOLUTELY do that, and that is something that i have stated 'til i am blue in the face, seriously... look at my facebook pic, i am blue. Thats the point of this office and this job! I spoke to Mr. DePass just today for example."
• "Though there are double-checks of bundles of ballots throughout the counting process, when the count itself takes upwards of 10 hours, i think the question exists as to if candidates and students really want an exhausted group of people counting the same night with a greater increase in the potential for mistakes and miscounts. The results that got released were also declared to be preliminary, meaning that until the SRA ratifies the results, the preliminary winner is not the definite winner because requests for recounts are anticipated. The amount of time between the counts is due to the difficulty in finding another period of time, that allows for a count of such length, and also can obtain a quorate elections committee (which is needed before counting any ballots). Due to having to uphold the length of time for submission of appeals following the initial count (5 days from Sat. feb 9th)..." "the fact that the decision to hold a recount from the meeting held on Wednesday, Feb. 13 (and declaring a recount and opening up a suitable timeline for scrutineer submissions) would have led straight into reading week where a quorate elections committee could not be achieved, the recount was held, literally at the most immediate time possible. I urge people also to remember that those who sit on the elections committee are, like yourselves, students and like everyone here, have other priorities, number one being academics. This is particularly compounded by the fact that the elections committee is one of the hardest committees to fill and keep full due to the time required of it, and the people on the committee, like the candidates, have made great sacrifices to to ensure their proper participation in it."