Cyrah Hawkins and Tallie Brinson III lost the SGA Presidential election.
No one is disputing that fact. After the tandum’s performance in Monday’s debate, Stevie Wonder could see they would not win. The Famuan’s question is simply: did they lose by 987 votes. Possibly. But another figure at the polls makes that seem unlikely.
Jeremy Mounticure pulled in 1,123 votes, but he still isn’t Mr. FAMU.
Chapter 600.6 of the election codes states that if a candidate receives “50 percent + 1″of the vote, then he or she is the winner and no runoff is necessary.
Benjamin Petrose and John Williams only received 1,017 votes combined. They would have had to come up with 1,070 votes to qualify as a legitimate runoff.
Now the electoral commission could argue that the 50 + 1 rule refers to percentages in both cases, but 1 percent of the vote would have been 21.4 votes.
Clearly, the numbers don’t add up.
By all accounts, Jeremy Mounticure should be your new Mr. FAMU. But he’ll have to campaign today to reclaim his voters’ support for Thursday’s runoff to receive his crown.
If by some strange twist of fate, John Williams becomes our new representative face, the student body should stand up in outrage at the blatant abuse of power by our electoral commission.
If John Williams wins, the entire spring elections should be recalled.
Yes it would be a setback to all the students who won their races fair and square. But those 10 or 15 students are not our concern when a population of more than 11,000 is being deceived.
Whether they won or lost, the numbers should always add up.
Robbyn Mitchell for the Editorial Board.