With the voting period completed and the votes counted, the Student Government Association’s Election Board released the results for the Senate, Finance Board, Vice President for Student Organizations and Treasurer races, but not the results of the presidential race. The board will release the results of that race at a later date.
In its official statement announcing the other race results, the Election Board stated that it was working to resolve “outstanding issues relating to the conduct of the election.”
Over the course of the campaign season, the Election Board imposed sanctions for repeated election rules violations. All three presidential/executive vice-presidential campaigns committed infractions to some degree.
On April 8, the Board gave official warning to Michelle Seu and Elizabeth Chen for posting their platform on a myUMBC group owned by the SGA Department of Academic Affairs. The Board determined that this violated election rules prohibiting candidates from using SGA resources for campaigning.
On April 20, the Board officially warned both the Corbett-Robier and Jankoski-Amsini campaigns for breaking Election Rule 9, which “requires candidates to file all organization and student endorsements with the Election Board prior to using them to promote their campaign.”
Kelly Robier and Anthony Jankoski had each posted pictures on Facebook promoting UMBC students’ endorsements of their respective campaigns without receiving the Board’s official consent.
On April 22, the Election Board determined that the Jankoski-Amsini campaign had violated Election Rule 10, banning the use of electronic devices to solicit votes. The Board also determined that Jankoski himself had violated Election Rule 15, banning campaigns from violating campus policies, by playing loud music in Academic Row on April 16.
Yesterday, the Board ruled that the Jankoski-Amsini campaign had again violated Rule 10 by continuing to use electronic devices to solicit votes.
The top 11 Senate candidates, in terms of votes received, were as follows: Will Rice, Andres Garcia, Augustus Williams, Oladipupo Eke, Joshua Massey, Brooke Perrin, Sarah Lilly, Seth Benefield, Markya Reed, Andrew Lopez, and Vanessa Barksdale. Rice led all Senate candidates with 924 total votes received.
Michelle Yan, Kevin Nguyen, Nathalie Karam, Trent Bae, and Meghna Bhatt were voted onto the SGA Finance Board. Yan led the Finance Board candidates with 893 total votes received.
Bryan England won the race for SGA Vice President for Student Organizations with 1092 total votes, while Tristan Oetker won SGA Treasurer with 877 total votes.
Voters also approved SGA Proposition One, which would amend the SGA Constitution to require SGA Senate approval of any Election Board member’s termination by the Chair. 74.5 percent of voters cast their support for the proposed amendment.
The Election Board has worked to impose new regulations on campaign conduct this year. In addition to banning the use of electronic devices for vote-solicitation, it also restricted polling hours during the voting period.
These changes stemmed from student dissatisfaction expressed over the conduct of previous electoral campaigns. Students had reported candidates and campaign volunteers pressuring them into voting last year.
The Election Board did not state when exactly it expected to release the presidential and vice-presidential results. New officers will be inaugurated on May 11 during free hour in The Commons.
