Another troubled year

The 2003-04 school year marked a tumultuous time for Hopkins Student Council (StuCo) election process. The year began with a promising start when freshman elections experienced a marked jump in turnout from years past, due to an online system of voting and better promotion. However, after its early successes, the electoral process and the Board of Elections (BoE) ran afoul. On Nov. 17 freshman Jered Ede submitted a referendum to alter the StuCo constitution. An urgent election was held and the referendum passed by a vote of 389-322.

As a result of the change, the old StuCo constitution and its bylaws were deemed null and void and the three Representatives from every class were replaced with four senators. StuCo could not operate until senatorial elections were held. Once senators were elected, bylaws could be drafted and StuCo could operate.

"We're essentially starting all over again," said senior Senator Lindsay Allen, "We are coming into a busy time and we lost a lot of people who have the experience we need to be able to keep things running as they should be."

The resulting election was held on short notice with many students complaining that the electoral process was rushed and not adequately promoted. Other students complained that there was not sufficient notice or time to gain candidacy in the elections.

"I have had contact with one person that actually didn't run because of the short amount of time," said Ede. "Because he didn't have time to go and get the votes."

The election resulted in 16 new senator positions in Student Council. Every class had a senator for the committee on leadership appointment, finance, authorization and legislation. In subsequent class elections, candidates had to run for a specific senator position. Previously, candidates would run for the representative position and after election committees would be determined. This situation greatly contributed to a number of uncontested spots in the last class election.

The executive elections held in early March resulted in a public relations fiasco for the BoE. The elections, particularly the campaign for executive president were marked by numerous claims of negative campaigning and other campaign violations. Executive president candidate junior Soren Gandrud was disqualified for negative campaigning and then readmitted after going before a Board of Appeals. The numerous complaints caused a delay in the release of the voting data.

"There was no evidence of negative campaigning except for [anonymous postings] on the Daily Jolt's [Internet forum]," Gandrud said. "I think that was a disgrace; people should not be defamed. I believe I was unfairly disqualified, and that disqualification was overturned."

In the end, the BoE decided to redo the executive president election and the presidential election votes were tossed out. It was then pushed back to coincide with the class elections. In addition BoE co-Chair Rick Aseltine was asked to step down because of his matriculation as a student at the School of Professional Studies Business and Education.

When the class elections commenced in mid-April, there was a tie between executive president candidates Gandrud and sophomore Hyder Syed. Both candidates received 397 votes each. As a result StuCo still does not have an executive president for upcoming year. A special election will commence this weekend.