After the disqualification of a presidential candidate, results from this week’s Associated Students of NMU (ASNMU) election for president and vice president will not count. Elections will now take place next week for president and vice president; votes for representatives will stand.
ASNMU presidential candidate Ben Stanley allegedly broke eight ASNMU election rules and was disqualified on Monday, April 4 from running for ASNMU president. These infractions included illegal postings of campus literature, canvassing of residential halls without approval and not following Center for Student Enrichment guidelines.
He said that he would appeal with the All-Student Judiciary (ASJ). The appeal occurred Wednesday, April 6 at 3 p.m., and ASJ upheld five of the eight complaints. Three infractions are grounds for disqualification, and Stanley is no longer allowed to run for president.
“From here we are having a revote, for just the presidential and vice presidential candidates and that will occur the same time next week, Tuesday (April 12) at 12:01 a.m. to Wednesday (April 13) at 6 p.m.” said Mitch Foster, head of the elections committee.
Foster said that students were not notified sooner about the infractions and possible disqualification because it was impossible to remove him from the ballot and the Election Committee did not want to hurt his chances in case his appeal was granted.
Polling stations will not be open as they were this week: only online voting will be available for students. For the votes that already took place for presidential and vice presidential candidates, no numbers will be recorded. All representative votes were recorded and will not be included in next week’s votes; all candidates ran uncontested.
“The reason this ordeal occurred is because there are rules set in place for ASNMU, and in order for the organization itself to be considered legitimate by students it has to be upheld for all students. As the election committee, we have to take those complaints very seriously,” Foster said.
ASNMU vice president, Kyle Brock, insisted that it’s important students know that when a person decides to run for ASNMU, they sign an agreement that they will follow certain rules. With that in mind, students should expect that the committee will uphold those rules.
Foster added that these problems brought to light problems within the election packet.
“With these issues occurring, we feel as though this has brought about some issues for the elections packet and the election bylaws in the future, and they will be looked at by the new executive board this summer and next year,” Foster said.
K • Apr 11, 2011 at 3:43 pm
To address a few of the comments on here in my own opinion. Firstly, advertising is mainly done by the people running for positions. They pay for their postings out of their own pockets, ASNMU does not pay for them to advertise. ASNMU does however use postings to advertise people to apply for the board and also to vote. Both of these postings were spread throughout campus. Also, students get an email with the direct link to vote. It can’t get much easier than that.
Secondly, it has been a hot topic about having a low turnout on voters compared to previous years and especially last years. Keep in mind, a referendum is on the ballot every other year. Those years typically have higher turnouts. Last year, the PEIF pass was on the ballot, something that the majority of campus is pretty excited about. Unfortunately, the PEIF pass was not able to be implemented. Higher up administration know about it and currently it is out of ASNMU’s hands. ASNMU can and has kept on voicing the students opinion on this.
Lastly, the reason for the reelection seems completely appropriate. It is unknown who won the first election and there is no reason to know. All votes for the DQ’d person would have went for another candidate possibly changing the outcome. The person disqualified was for the right reasons. There are rules to be followed and they were not.
K • Apr 9, 2011 at 6:01 am
So I read up on the candidates before I voted and was slightly disappointed in all the runners. Ben had some great ideas but didn’t back them up with his ‘how to get there’s and his running mate Camden only repeated himself in all of the questions. Helina and Stephanie didn’t really have a good grasp on what they wanted to do if elected and I couldn’t really see a reason that I could vote for someone without solid goals. Finally Justin’s talk about committees sounds all professional but what is all of this going to do? What are the students going to achieve through these groups? Other than that his was the only solidified statement of a sort-of clear idea. His running partner Drew fluffed up his answers with big words basically relying on Justin.
I understand this is my own opinion based on the little bit of reading I did on them, but for something so serious I am really surprised how inexistent this whole election really felt. Actually had Ben not gone around the dorms, which disqualified him, I may have not even known about them and would have just deleted the email when it came. So personally I think a bigger step needs to be taken by all of these people to try and get the student body to know what they can do for them. It isn’t the presidential elections for the United States but it is presidential elections for the entire student body of Northern Michigan University.
As for the voters, you didn’t even have to register to vote. Just fill out a simple online ballot and send it in. Take this chance to stop complaining about what goes on around campus like you don’t have a say. By voting you are choosing the leader who works with everyone to organize these things. So next year we wouldn’t have watch without having a say. By the looks of it most of the candidates are trying to integrate the student body into the mix and give you the chance to really see what is going on. Don’t pass this up!
Tom • Apr 8, 2011 at 8:59 am
Wow, a candidate was disqualified for talking to students? Where they live? Oh the humanity. I’ve worked on political campaigns, many communities have tried to put up rules against door-to-door canvassing, and have been consistently struck down because political speech is protected speech.
A • Apr 8, 2011 at 1:04 am
Wouldn’t the kind of person who doesn’t even follow agreed upon rules and guidelines create even more chaos in ASNMU as the President? I can image the mess we’d be stuck with if such a person was allowed to continue to run. Also, to the comment above suggesting that no one voted for the other candidates, isn’t that a little conceited? I doubt everyone who voted shares the same opinions. The other candidates had supporters too.
d • Apr 8, 2011 at 12:15 am
who is dave?
Anyways, if ASNMU wanted a larger turn out they would have advertised the election more than they did! Its kinda like ASNMU and the majority of candidates didn’t want to advertise the election. In years past, you would see campaign posters on every spot for posting! You would also see chalking everywhere and there would be hand bills and facebook groups, the whole nine yard! I dont think anyone can really say that they saw that from anyone other then Ben Stanley this year! The bad part is I feel that students voted strictly because they believed in him and his motives. I think this next election will have a far less of a turn out then this first election. I think ASNMU has lost the students support. I asked people in class if they were voting and they said no. I asked people in starbucks if they were voting and they said no. If we cant blame the members of ASNMU for lack of student support then the only other people we can blame is the administration not listening to the largest vote ever in the history of the school.
D • Apr 7, 2011 at 1:22 pm
@Dave Having a second election because it was unfair to have someone on a ballot who was disqualified doesn’t mean ASNMU is “unorganized” or that Stanley won. It means that ASNMU and the election committee wanted the election to be fair. Maybe if you stopped pushing your agenda that ASNMU is evil and a puppet of the administration, you’d have time to actually read the article
Adam • Apr 7, 2011 at 12:13 pm
@d I agree with you in your comment on the story “Students need to vote in the ASNMU election” Dr. Wong pretty much said we weren’t smart enough to understand how the PEIF pass would affect our tuition rates, and that the students have lost faith in ASNMU.
However, I have to disagree with you on this one. If a candidate broke the rules then they broke the rules and should be punished.
d • Apr 7, 2011 at 11:53 am
you will see lower numbers in this new second election! I think even more students will come to realize how unreliable ASNMU is and how unorganized they really are to need a second election. Obviously, if three people are running for a position there is going to be a second and third place in a election. It sounds to me like everyone vote for Ben Stanley so there was no second place or third place because no one voted for the other people. Multiple elections are a fraud to democracy!!!!! How bout we have elections till ASNMU and the Dean of students likes the results.
I think The new ASNMU election should be Boycotted.