Confusion and Corruption in This Year’s UMBC SGA Elections

 

Alleged corruption in the 2014 SGA elections leave some candidates disqualified; students left wondering what happens next.

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This year’s SGA elections at UMBC have been anything but ordinary. With corruption and deception plaguing the electoral process, the SGA Election Board has been forced to step in and take control of a deteriorating situation.

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It seemed to start with the posting of a video by UMBC student Ifeoluwapo Akinnola. The video showed one of the campaigns’ electioneers violating election protocol by standing over and assisting a student in voting for their candidate. This began a slew of discussions on the myUMBC discussion board, with students aggravated at the persistent electioneers throughout campus asking for votes, many of whom were apparently violating electoral rules and regulations. “I already had this happen to me a few times, it is annoying” said Ahmad Saad, a student at UMBC. This video prompted the Election Board to remind the candidates and their campaigns of ethical and legal voting practices.

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As voting continued, another video surfaced displaying unethical campaign practices, however this time the video was sent directly to the SGA Election Board. This video allegedly showed a member of the Ganesh Mysore-Valerie Parks campaign going door-to-door soliciting votes in a UMBC residence hall. As this is a direct violation of the Election Board’s voting policies, the Election Board offered the Ganesh Mysore-Valerie Parks campaign an opportunity to respond.

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With their response came somewhat of a surprise. The Ganesh Mysore-Valerie Parks campaign told the Election Board that not only was the video misleading, but that “the video had actually been created by the Jeff Kee-Marquez Fernandez campaign in an attempt to mislead the Election Board so it would penalize the Mysore-Parks campaign” said the SGA Election Board in an announcement. Creating a Hollywood style plot twist, the Election Board gave the Jeff Kee-Marquez Fernandez campaign a chance to respond.

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The Election Board also launched their own investigation on this matter collecting evidence that “included, but was not limited to, in-person testimony and statements signed by three individuals who had participated in creating the video; in-person testimony and a statement signed by a member of the Residential Life staff who was on duty when the video was made; information from the entry log maintained by Residential Life for the building where the video was made; and telephone records” the Board said in their announcement.

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Finished with their investigation, the Election Board determined, with overwhelming evidence, that the video was actually made by the Jeff Kee-Marquez Fernandez campaign in an attempt to have the Ganesh Mysore-Valerie Parks campaign disqualified. Having supplied false information to the Election Board, the Board voted unanimously to disqualify the Jeff Kee-Marquez Fernandez campaign.

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With only the Ganesh Mysore-Valerie Parks campaign left on the ballot, it seemed obvious that they would win by default. This soon changed however, when the Election Board announced on May 1 that they were going to invalidate all Presidential and Vice-Presidential tickets, and move for a new election at either the end of this semester or the beginning of the next.

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So that’s that, right? Wrong.

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The Board issued an announcement on May 12, stating that “the 2014 SGA election results should have included, and moving forward will include all elected candidates, including the names of Ganesh Mysore and Valerie Parks.” Reversing their decision, the Board decided to allow the votes for the Ganesh Mysore-Valerie Parks campaign to be included and counted. As a result, Ganesh Mysore and Valerie Parks were publicly inaugurated at noon on Monday May 12, bringing an end to this chaotic election round.

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While there may have been corrupt or unethical practices occurring in past elections, this is certainly the first time that they have been so extreme and so widespread. This will certainly prompt the Election Board to rethink various rules and regulations that they have or will set in place. When asked what may be changed for next year, Benjamin Alkon, a member of the Election Board said, “I’m no longer involved in the process, that’s up to the new senators and finance board members.”

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It is up to the new members of the Board to ensure that this will not happen again. Throughout all of this however, one sentiment has remained, as Rachel Robinson, an undergraduat student at UMBC says, “[All of] these great lengths of cheating to win a university SGA position. LAME.”

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