One ticket running in IUSA election with three days to deadline

One of the two tickets that had declared its intention to run in the IU Student Association election dropped out Monday, leaving PLUS for IUSA’s campaign unopposed.

Presidential candidate and freshman Andrew Ireland explained on the ticket’s Facebook page Monday that his ticket Unify IU for IUSA was dropping out because he felt it couldn’t compete with PLUS for IUSA.

With a ticket dropping so soon before the deadline to apply, March 14, there’s little chance another ticket will have the time to form a campaign and run, IUSA President Jose Mitjavila said.

According to Election Commissioner Jared Thomas, Unify IU for IUSA was the other ticket expected to run.

It expressed its intention to join the IUSA election at a callout meeting and created social media pages for its campaign.

Unify IU for IUSA did not contact the Election Commissioner or IUSA to formally withdraw, Thomas and Mitjavila said.

In the Facebook post, Ireland said PLUS for IUSA’s established support group was “unbeatable,” adding that it consisted of “recycled IUSA members, a handful of select Greek organizations and ‘friends’ of the current administration’s work.”

Ireland was recently elected as the president of Forest Quad.

Plus for IUSA Congressional campaign director Ty Nocita was not affiliated with Youniversity, the executive ticket led by Student Body President Jose Mitjavila that won this year.

He worked with the SPARC campaign as a representative in Congress, which consists of multiple campaigns that work together throughout the year.

He said Plus for IUSA was making efforts to hear the most voices possible by talking with Residential Programs and Services student governments.

They’re also trying to recruit both greek and non-greek members, particularly in Congress, he said.

“At the end of the day a lot of the people running for IUSA are already involved in IUSA,” Nocita said. “There’s a reason for that.”

Thomas said he found the single-ticket election disappointing, and he wished the ticket had approached him earlier with their concerns.

“That is usually what happens every year,” Thomas said.
 
“But I wish he would have stuck with it. He could have tried to give it a shot and see what happens.”

If only one ticket runs, as outlined in the Election Code, Thomas said, it still has to run a campaign and try to obtain votes.

Thomas said his goal is to find student leaders on campus willing to put together a campaign and run against Plus for IUSA.

He said he intends to look over the constitution to see if he can push back the application for deadlines to give interested students more time.
 
“My goal as Election Commissioner is to get as many people involved,” Thomas said.
“If there’s any way we can get a second ticket, that’s where I’m looking right now.”