UOSA voids special election
The UOSA Superior Court reaffirmed the UOSA Election Commission’s decision to invalidate the results of the Jan. 27 and 28 election.
UOSA will begin accepting applications Wednesday for the vacant social sciences and humanities positions. UOSA will interview the applicants and place someone in the position.
“Instead of having yet another special election, Student Congress will be interviewing applicants for those seats through our own internal appointment procedures,” Kurt Davidson, chair of the Undergraduate Student Senate and political science senior said in an e-mail. “Through that process, we will ensure that these seats will be filled until the spring election, making sure those districts have representatives. There will then be the general election on March 31 and April 2 that includes most Congress seats in addition to both the UOSA President and CAC Chair race.”
Davidson said the UOSA Code Annotated requires the Undergraduate Student Congress and the Graduate Student Senate to pass legislation for elections three weeks prior to the election. He said if UOSA were to take this approach, the election would be in March, less than one month before the general spring election.
Raymond Rushing, Election Commission chair and human relations graduate student, said the Election Commission invalidated the results because a transferable voting system had a glitch and chose a candidate itself for the January election.
He said when a student votes for a representative, they can chose a second and third choice. If a student’s preferred candidate does not win the election, the student’s vote goes to the second or third choice. Because of this system, the humanities candidates received the same amount of votes and the winner was therefore chosen by a computer, Rushing said.
Rushing said the transfer of votes is one of the primary reasons the Election Commission invalidated the events. He said the Superior Court set a precedent declaring it can invalidate elections when there is a problem, but only when the election has been verified by the Election Commission. Since the election was not validated, the Superior Court ruled it cannot touch the results, Rushing said.
“Unfortunately, this is the best and fairest way to fill the seats,” he said.
Davidson said UOSA is encouraging those who ran in the Jan. 27 and 28 elections to apply for the position and interview with UOSA officials. Applications are due Feb. 18.
-Jamie Hughes/The Oklahoma Daily
Structural problems close downtown building
A six-story tower on the corner of Main Street and Peters Avenue, home to The Vista Sports Grill, is closing to the public due to structural concerns.
Tenants and owners of the Financial Building, 111 N. Peters Ave., were notified the tower should be evacuated until repairs are made.
In a letter posted on The Vista Web site, General Manager Skay McCall, said the building’s owners are making plans for repairs, but they “could take several months.”
“Everyone is bailing out like rats,” said Teddy Whitehead, Little Guys Movers employee. “It’s like a bad Jenga game.”
Whitehead was clearing the office space of Fisher & Company, an accounting firm, to move it across the street. He said everything for Fisher & Company should be moved out by Sunday.
All tenants have made plans to vacate the building or have already left according to a statement from Patrick Copeland, Norman City building inspector.
-Sandra Kunzweiler/The Oklahoma Daily
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tommyscheurich 3 years, 3 months ago
“Everyone is bailing out like rats,” said Teddy Whitehead, Little Guys Movers employee. “It’s like a bad Jenga game.”
What a great quote! Now that is journalism...