Florida A&M University’s Student Supreme Court voted Monday in favor of a new presidential and vice presidential election, which will be held March 16-23. Voting will be available on FAMU’s campus, including the College of Law.
Following the FAMU spring elections on Feb. 22, the Student Supreme Court discovered that the College of Law violated the election code and are calling for a new Presidential election.
During the election process, the College of Law failed to insure voters signed their names in the designated column which accounts for the person making the vote.
According to section 605.2 of the student body statutes, a new election shall occur if the race is "invalidated" by the Supreme Court. Only qualified candidates or tickets who ran in the primary election, including write-in candidates, will be placed on the new election ballot.
The SSC released a memorandum to Student Government Association detailing why the new election will occur.
“Reason being, The SCC in a 3-2 vote, has found that the voting method that transpired at the College of Law violated the established voting procedure as outlined within the Student Body Statutes. As well, these actions did affect the outcome of the 2016 PE, thus invalidating the 2016 PE,” according to the memorandum.
Olabimpe Olayiwola, deputy electoral commissioner, agreed with the decision of the SSC.
“The SSC made a fair and just decision. The College of Law violated the election code which affected the results,” Olayiwola said. “The College of Law received all information regarding the proper procedures that should occur during an election. Not all procedures were followed, therefore a new election should occur.”
Kierra Clinch, precinct supervisor, addressed the senator’s concerns regarding why a new election will occur for the PE race only.
“The president and vice president race was the only race in which the law school votes changed the outcome of the election, being that a candidate or ticket has to earn 50 plus one of the vote to be the winner,” Clinch said.
For the new election the 2016 Electoral Commission announced that as of now there will be no debate or candidate’s meeting during the campaign period. The EC currently does not have funding to host another candidates meeting or SGA debate.
Chanelle Glover, former deputy electoral commissioner, commended the SSC for voting in favor of a new election.
“The College of Law didn’t abide by the proper procedures. Therefore, my vote, my voice, didn’t count. So I am glad that the SSC followed proper procedures and voted for a new election to occur,” Glover said.
To view the memorandums from the Electoral Commission, SGA Judicial Branch and the Chrispin/ Mitchell ticket, visit the FAMU_JudicialBranch page on Instagram.