The UOSA Superior Court ruled Thursday there will need to be a run-off election to decide who will be UOSA president and vice president from fall 2010 through spring 2011.
The voting system asks that voters rank candidates for a particular office in order of preference. The purpose of this ranking is to conduct an automatic run off in the event that no candidate receives a majority of the votes. The court stated voters who did not rank Ally Glavas and Franz Zenteno as either choice No. 1 or 2 were most likely not counted in the final results of the original election March 30 and 31.
The Meeks Voting System, which was used in the UOSA presidential general election, was unconstitutional, the court stated. It does not conform to the UOSA Constitution because not only did the winning campaign not receive a majority of the votes, but some voters, who as ruled by the court had their ballots uncounted, were not able to make a final choice between Glavas and Zenteno.
“We order that a new run-off election must be held between the two campaigns earning the largest number of votes in the first iteration conducted under the current system — the Glavas campaign and the Zenteno campaign,” the court majority opinion stated.
A bill recently passed by UOSA states the run-off election is scheduled April 26 and 27. The candidates also have a $200 spending limit.
“We are looking forward to getting out and asking people to vote for us again,” Glavas said. “We’re using some of the old campaign materials that we’ve saved from the last election.”
Zenteno said he looks forward to reaching out to students who did not vote for him or Glavas.
“We want to use this as a time to reach out to other students and let them know that we want to hear their concerns just as much as we did [during the election],” Zenteno said.
The court also ruled that UOSA President Katie Fox violated UOSA Code when she endorsed candidates Ally Glavas and Zac McCullock in her official capacity as UOSA president on a YouTube video.
Additionally, the court ruled the Glavas-McCullock campaign violated election rules by setting up their own polling places using personal laptops to get people to vote.
Glavas said her campaign received permission from the UOSA Election Board before having Fox endorse her and set up a polling place.
“We wouldn’t have done these things without getting approval from the election board first,” Glavas said. “But we respect the decision of the court and will pay the fine and abide by their ruling.”
Zenteno said actions made by members of UOSA is why people don’t care for UOSA.
“It is these types of mistakes that make UOSA look bad,” Zenteno said. “We need to go in there and do what we are sent there to do.”
The Glavas-McCullock campaign was fined $75 for the polling-place violation.
—Ricky Maranon contributed to this report.
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ougrad10 2 years, 1 month ago
I love how the Glavas campaign said that they had that court case in the bag and it would be a small bump on the road to victory... and yet they ruled everything against them!
Funny how when you blatantly break the rules, you can actually see repercussions!
I'm glad to see this ruling and will be supporting the campaign that didn't cheat the first time.
soonerboomers 2 years, 1 month ago
Raze it to the ground. There is nothing worth saving in this organization. Why do we waste our student money on make-believe politics?
justsomeguy13 2 years, 1 month ago
The voting system is to blame here. Voters should just put in who they want to win. The candidate with the most votes wins. Simple and easy.