This is part 2 of a series on SGA elections. Part 1 can be found here.
Before I begin discussing who has already hit the ground running with their campaign, I want to make something clear. Article I (Elections), Section 6 (Campaigning), Subsection A of the Student Government Association Bylaws defines what activities are considered early campaigning:
The campaign period will commence as of the date the petition forms, required by Article VIII, Section 2(b) of the Student Government Association constitution, are made available by the elections subcommittee. However, posters, flyers, or announcements of candidacy or intended candidacy in any type or form, other than the official petition form, may not be posted, distributed, or circulated until the petition of candidacy has been certified by the elections subcommittee.
According to the “Tentative” Elections Timeline, Friday, December 1 is the date that petitions are due. It is against the SGA Bylaws to make an announcement of candidacy or intended candidacy before then.
The first candidates for SGA President and Vice President to have announced are current Senators Katy Bowers and Ali Gibbons. You may recognize Bowers from this earlier post.
Bowers and Gibbons have already recruited their campaign team, comprised of current SGA-fites Andrew Dill (current Executive Director of SGA, their Campaign Manager, Golden Ticket campaign manager, and going-on-sixth-year senior), Senator Benjamin Sermons, Senator Laura Bailey (current Chief of Staff and Golden Ticket campaign manager), and countless others involved in the current administration.
Apparently they already have an image consultant. What bullshit. Hopefully Mark Meredith isn’t their image consultant.
Their Senate slate is comprised of current SGA senators and members of the Freshman Board. This last point is important, since Gibbons helped place Bowers, Dill, and herself on the Freshman Board selection committee. They got to hand-pick those they wanted to run, so that these select few would gain the experience needed to run for SGA.
The above information was passed on by an already disgruntled campaign member (haha, upset already, and things just started) and confirmed.
Is this wrong? Most definitely. Telling others that you are running for SGA, or “intending” to run, in any form, is against the SGA Bylaws. But the question is, will anyone actually enforce these rules?
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Man, they have a head start…. I bet they already have all the UGA frat boys social security numbers and passwords for Oasis too!!
It is not a violation of the bylaws to say that you “intend to run”. Go ask the elections committee chair, Jamarl Glenn. He’s probably in on Jamie’s conspiracy though, because he only FOUNDED the Black Tie party. You know, the one that ran against Jamie Peper. Definitely her stooge. Or you could ask elections committee members Ben Zhang and Brandon Hall, who both ran against Jamie last year. That committee’s definitely stacked. Oh yeah.
Insanity, maybe you should read the entire post before you comment. The section of the SGA Bylaws reads, “[A]nnouncements of candidacy or INTENDED CANDIDACY, in any type or form, may not be posted, distributed, or circulated…”. Perhaps you can explain to the readers when and how you began interpreting an “intent to run” as being allowed. Isn’t it ironic that the person who is supposed to settle constitutitional issues like this (the Attorney General) is also the “Elections” chairman (Senator Jamarl Glenn)? And, Insanity, the Elections chair and/or individual members aren’t supposed to make these types of rulings, the Elections Committee should. Its called accountability and credibility.
It is the job of the elections Committee to interpret issues such as this, and I spoke with the Committee recently. An intention to run is prefectly acceptable, you nitwit, and the elections chair and every member of this body is in agreement. They aren’t posting, distributing or circulating. That implies mass messaging to the student body. They are just talking to their friends about their intentions to run, which is perfectly fine in everyone’s mind except for yours.
If you wanted to keep anyone from saying anything, how would you ever get a president/vice president collaboration? In order for a presidential candidate to get a VP to run with, what do they have to do? TALK TO THE POSSIBLE VEEP ABOUT THEIR INTENTION TO RUN. Unless you have some sort of mind communication you personally would use.
And Jamarl Glenn will do a fine job thank you. He had issues with how SGA was being run in the past, so you know what he did? He came out and accomplished something instead of hiding behind a domain name and being a whiny loser.
I’m not telling you how to accomplish your collaboration issues, I am instead telling you what the rules are. You decide how you want to be oh so ethical and thwart the SGA Constitution and Bylaws.
“And Jamarl Glenn will do a fine job thank you.” Insanity, why are you such a proponent of Jamarl Glenn? I just looked at the SGA Senate minutes, and never has Jamarl Glenn been approved by 2/3 of the Senate (like the Constitution says the Elections Chair should be), so I don’t think he is the actual Elections Committee chairman. He “came out and accomplished something” by adding a phony major at the last minute to be ‘elected’ as College of Public Health Senator. How many Public Health major classes has Jamarl attended? Now that is an example of someone with striking ethics and moral fortitude, and just the type of person I would want making sure people don’t violate the SGA Constitution. Insanity, what exactly do you think Jamarl Glenn has accomplished?
Why should we believe you talking to the Elections Committee while you are hiding behind a screen name and fake email address, and while the Elections Committee hasn’t released an opinion? Got something to hide???
No wonder sga doesn’t get anything done. Months before elections even start, people are conspiring and figuring out all this bullshit for the next years elections. Why aren’t SGA members trying to get a better football ticket pickup system? keeping fall break the way it is? FINDING AN ELECTION SYSTEM WITH INTEGRITY??? because they are too busy getting all their little friends together to run yet another annoying campaign where they waste a few thousand dollars getting people elected that don’t do ANYTHING. And besides, why would sga people want a REAL election where you can tell if the person voting is actually that person (rather than someone with a list of social security numbers and passwords to OASIS). This messed up system has done a wonderful job of getting the worlds biggest frat boys and sorority girls elected for the past 20 years. And Jamarl Glen? I believe he was quoted saying “Im going to be FOR one candidate”. So, good luck to the people that are running and arent favored by the oh-so-noble elections chair.
Mr. Insanity (I assume it’s a Mister, I cannot tell since he is remaining anonymous) raises an interesting point. The SGA Bylaws prohibit “announcements of candidacy or intended candidacy in any type or form.” This does bring into question the definition of an announcement. To me, an announcement is inherently public, that is, something designed to raise mass awareness. Consulting with a couple friends would then not be an announcement, and would be acceptable. I believe the certainly would apply to finding a running mate for a ticket. I find this ethically questionable, since I sincerely doubt any other potential candidates would know forming a campaign team is allowed if SGA is operating under this argument. This would be an unfair advantage to Ms. Bowers and Ms. Gibbons, but in an ideal world this wont matter since hopefully we will not have an SGA after this year’s election.
I was just wondering, isn’t the referendum on SGA’s existence going to be on the ballot this year? Would it not make sense to mount a “Dissolve SGA” campaign concurrent with all this insanity? Flyers could go up, people is funny costumes could parade around Tate with bullhorns. It would be fabulous.
Shouldn’t Hatin’ SGA mount a voting campaign anyway? If less than 15% of the campus votes, and most of them are fake votes from frats, shouldn’t we be encouraging thinking people to take the time to vote? Just a suggestion. Votes DO count for more per person the fewer people vote, i.e. frats and sororities are over-represented.
{ 4 } Trackbacks
[...] This is part 3 of a series on SGA elections. Part 2 is here, and Part 1 can be found here. [...]
[...] For those of you that might wish to run (and lose to Katy Bower’s ticket) for a position in SGA, you are required to attend one of two Election ‘Seminars’. [...]
[...] I wrote some time ago about Katy Bowers and Ali Gibbons running for President and Vice President of the non-Student Government Association. Well, it seems they have been hard at work with their campaign and staff, and I am pleased to report several new pieces of information. [...]
[...] SGA Senator Kathryn Bowers, a candidate for SGA President in the upcoming elections, is quoted in the Athens Banner Herald as supporting a limit on class withdrawals: Students often withdraw from classes out of fear they will lose a scholarship, because they take more classes they can handle and for other personal hardship reasons, said Kathryn Bowers, the committee’s undergraduate student representative. [...]
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