Is FAMU attempting to have its own version of the 2000 U.S. presidential election or is it just a victim of a system that gives too much power to pseudo-politicians?
Larry Rivers and Virgil Miller amassed more votes than their competition – not once, but twice.
In fact, they got over 400 more votes than their closest competitors in both the primary and runoff elections.
So, they’re obviously the newly elected SGA president and vice president, right?
I wish that were the case. Because of issues involving election procedure violations by the Rivers-Miller campaign, they have not been given the victory.
Apparently, the judicial branch of the SGA used two weeks to contemplate whether or not it would hear an appeal by the candidates to have their penalties overturned. What?
There should not have been a question of whether the appeal should have been heard but instead when.
The students have decided that they want Rivers and Miller in office, so the judicial branch should not have been led to believe by our electoral system that it was its prerogative and not its obligation to accept the case.
Not wanting to ruin its streak of ignoring the students’ choices, the judicial branch during election week questioned whether it would hear an appeal from sophomore attendant candidate Kim Brown for election procedure violations.
A student admitted in a signed statement to the judicial branch that she purposefully sabotaged Brown’s campaign to get her disqualified.
Strangely enough, the judicial branch had rejected Brown’s appeal until after they received the statement.
Brown, ironically, had the highest number of votes in the primary election and tied in the runoffs.
It makes no sense that the election system is set up so it is the job of the judicial branch to decide when it is important to listen to the students. Our vote is our power, and our power is the law.
Without a doubt, the students are losing their voice because our electoral system allows some members of the SGA to lose grip on reality.
They are here to serve the interests of the student body and not play voting games that real politicians can barely handle.
Jason Hutchins, 18, is a freshman business student from Athens, Ga. He is a page designer for The Famuan. He can be reached at je_hutchins@hotmail.com.