Kelly wins second term as SGB president

Despite many candidates thinking results would be available at 9:30 p.m., at almost midnight… Despite many candidates thinking results would be available at 9:30 p.m., at almost midnight the results were still not out, and a series of debates awaited, amid allegations of candidates’ misuse of SGB office supplies.

Various charges against Elections Chair Andrew Powers and the Driven and Proven slates because of the use of an office paper cutter caused all of the Student Government Board election drama.

Allegedly, The Driven and Proven slates used a paper cutter in the SGB office Tuesday evening for campaign purposes, which K. Chase Patterson claimed violated the elections code. The code states that candidates cannot use SGB office resources on their campaigns.

Presidential candidate and incumbent Brian Kelly opposed filing charges of such violations because using a paper cutter did not hurt its value or cut SGB’s resources.

The two slates had asked for Powers’ approval before using the cutter. He approved, which is why charges were brought against him.

According to Kelly, who was not in the office at the time of the infraction, other slates had used the cutter earlier in the week without asking.

Kelly received a phone call late Tuesday night saying that Patterson had contacted Powers. Kelly came into the office and found board member and Black Action Society Vice President Charis Jones and Patterson waiting.

“I’m not going to be pushed around by some little kid who’s not even running,” Kelly said in reference to Patterson in an interview election night.

Kelly called Powers again that evening to make sure his slate was allowed to use the cutter, and Powers confirmed that they were.

Another violation came against Proven for an e-mail sent by Jennifer Anukem that included the Driven and Proven slates in the signature. According to elections code, slates cannot advertise together.

Kelly said he and his slate were not filing “petty” or “trivial” complaints over this election. He added, “At this point, I don’t want to stoop to their level.”

Kelly claimed that, during the day, about five black, female students spoke to him and said that BAS had told them he was racist and told them not to vote for him. Kelly spoke to them and explained that the board had voted unanimously in favor of such activities as Black Homecoming, even though the allocations committee had suggested they vote against it.

He added that his roommate was black and half of his fraternity was black as well.

BAS President and board member Lauren Evette Williams called the election “unfair,” and said it was necessary to pursue the infractions.

Kelly said the use of such tactics as these charges was the result of BAS’s frustration over the anticipated poor performance of the slates that they supported.

According to him, everything coming out of the BAS office this election cycle was negative.

Kelly added that while an issue such as BAS having its fliers taken away — which was brought up during the last few days — may have had an impact on the final election results, the possibility that small violations such as the paper-cutter incident had affected the outcome of the election was not something worth looking into at this point.

Both Kelly and Morris described being exhausted by the last few days, and the hearings only stretched out an already long process.

Morris, however, said that having the hearings before releasing the results was necessary because, in past elections, violations — which can result in the loss of votes for candidates — have been heard after the release of the results, circumstances that may have affected the elections committee’s decision regarding how many votes to dock from candidates.

If the elections committee decided to remove Powers from his chairmanship because of the violations, or if further review of the charges was necessary, issues would be brought to SGB’s judicial committee. Kelly thought the committee was on call for the night, so if further review was necessary, they could provide it.

“I hope to god this paper-cutter issue doesn’t go all the way to the judicial committee, ’cause I don’t have the patience,” Kelly said. “I don’t care at this point.”

He said he felt bad for the candidates who were now waiting to get the results and had worked so hard through the last few weeks.

“It’s just not fair to them,” he said.

He seemed frustrated with the entire process as he added that he was waiting for “my moment of truth.”