Students gathered in Lee Hall Friday to listen to the electoral commissioner candidates, presidential and vice presidential candidates debate.
The electoral commission debate began with Myiah Shows, the current electoral commissioner, and Darryl Gordon as the moderators. Candidates Maya Lewis, Jalisa Brown and T.J. Legacy-Cole answered questions from both the moderators and the audience.
All candidates agreed that involving college of law students in the voting process is imperative so all students can be included.
“When it comes to the electoral commissioner and handling elections, you must have the same enthusiasm of marketing campus elections as you do marketing Homecoming. We should have this [debate] at the college of law for them. We are excluding our fellow Rattlers with the system that we have currently in place,” said Legacy-Cole.
When asked about their views on electronic voting, Brown said it is a work in progress and is not currently constitutionally supported.
“Right now, it is just not feasible. You must also have to think about the integrity of voting. If voting was online, how would we do it?” asked Brown.
Lewis was asked to explain the referendum process that she states on her platform. She replied that she would work with the Senate and propose a bill for online voting. The bill must pass by majority vote for the process of online listing to begin.
After an intermission, the presidential and vice presidential candidates, Anthony Siders and Sean Siders, Marissa West and Michael Jefferson, and Justin McCorvey and Ariana Williams, took the stage.
Destiny Anderson and Larry Bowden, precinct supervisors for the electoral commission, were the moderators of the debate.
When asked about the many initiatives the candidates would implement on campus, McCorvey responded that they must address the student body at all times in order to have a transparent administration.
Jefferson said he wants to understand and have access to all the students’ needs.
“We would want to create a vision board. This will either be a dry erase board or an actual poster that we put up there and students can take a sharpie to the board and say ‘Hey, this is what I think we should do,” said Jefferson.
Sean Siders said he plans to bridge the gap between the student body and the Student Government Association by conversing with students more. He said he realized that past leaders have not taken an effort to familiarize themselves with the student body, so he wants to partner with the Royal Court to create “Rattler Days” that include pep rallies and games.