Photo courtesy Aaricka Freeman
An official statement informing the student body that the 2020 Spring Election dates were postponed, was released on Friday by Electoral Commissioner Aaricka Freeman.
Freeman explained why the dates were postponed.
“Unfortunately, there was an oversight on my behalf,” Freeman said.
Freeman added that there were complications involving both the Student Government Association (SGA) and the Electoral Commission.
“There wasn’t a solicitor general at the time and that is not anything dealing with the Electoral Commission but the Student Government Association,” Freeman said.
Third-year economics student, Jonathan McCloud, was appointed as solicitor general by SGA at Monday’s student senate meeting.
Kayla Bronson was appointed as precinct supervisor at Monday’s senate meeting as well. Both vacant positions before Monday night had an impact on elections being postponed.
Florida A&M’s University’s Miss Sophomore Attendant, Jazmine Runyon, shares how the change of dates can impact prospective candidates.
“With them not being organized, it’s hurting candidates who were ready to declare on Sunday,” Runyon said. “I would think doing all these things and calling my parents to come down with a set date is adding on more money.”
Freeman expresses how the date change does impact prospective candidates, but also emphasizes that elections could not go on without the fulfilled position.
“It’s just an inconvenience not to them but their families. Some are out of state and their parents bought tickets,” Freeman said. “I tried to get that across, but I was told that wasn’t an excuse to keep elections going for next week.”
Current sophomore class president, Cirsten Jones, shares why she thinks the date change is a positive thing.
“Being at FAMU, you have to be well over prepared for things that you do,” Jones said. “I think this is giving them time to better themselves, better their speeches and getting those jitters out the way.”
Freeman also explained why there has not been an official release for these new dates, despite new dates being proposed in the senate meeting.
“There’s still one thing I can do to get elections to start sooner but it’s just a matter of other people respecting the solution and taking the student body and candidates to account,” Freeman said. “I won’t put anything out right now because I don’t want to say it’s sooner than you actually think. I don’t want to inconvenience anyone more than I already have.”
Freeman commented further to apologize to the candidates and student body.
“I would like to say on behalf of the EC, we do apologize for the inconvenience, but it is best to talk to someone who’s on the commission to figure out what’s going on,” Freeman said.
Editor’s note: This story was updated on Friday, Feb. 14, to better explain the reason why the elections were postponed.