Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
Support the IDS in College Media Madness! Donate here March 24 - April 8.
Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

Candidates file for upcoming IUSA election

Campus Filler

Following an unprecedented number of party filings and over a hundred individual applications for IUSA members, the 2017 IU Student Association election commission extended its filing deadline until 5 p.m. today.

Five separate party tickets, Empower IU, Engage with IUSA, Focus for IUSA, Refund Supreme and IGNITE all filed at or before the 6 p.m. deadline last Thursday, election commission marketing co-chair Hannah Eaton said.

Last year only three parties ran, and even fewer ran in the past, Eaton said.

“I think it’s going to make for a really interesting election year, and I think we might see an increase in complaints with the sheer number of tickets,” she said.

According to the IUSA bylaws, a ticket is defined as four executive position candidates and at least one congressional candidate, though typically each party will try to fill every congressional seat available.

Candidates can, however, file a seat in congress under a party of their choice.

Those who seek an executive position, however, need to file together with the rest of their ticket.

Of the approximately 150 applications accepted so far, 119 are for positions in the IUSA congress, and the rest are for executive positions, Eaton’s co-chair Savannah Wormley said.

Eaton said parties typically try to fill every congressional seat available at the time of filing, which could explain why there are so many individual applications.

Normally, the requirement is to have at least one candidate for congress.

Since the election is in its early stages, only two of the tickets have publicly announced, she said. As of Sunday, the presidential candidates are as follows: Daniel Niersbach for for Empower, Michelle Long for Engage, Brandon Sakbun for Focus, Ethan Yde for Refund Supreme and William McKinney for IGNITE.

The election commission met Sunday afternoon to review applications, though it is still in the early stages of the process, Wormley said.

There will be an all-candidate meeting on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in SPEA where students interested in running for student government can have their questions about IUSA bylaws 
answered.

“If they have questions related to last year’s election they can ask those too,” Wormley said.

Eaton said they will also review which laws have been violated most frequently in the past.

Wormley said the biggest difference in the process from previous years is a new policy regarding conflicts of interest on the commission. Members are now expected to self-report any bias they think they might have, especially when it comes to decisions involving friends of candidates.

“The election commission is trying to be more transparent,” Wormley said. “We have a new advisor and we’re publishing our meeting minutes online.”

The new advisor, law 
student Cody Vaughn, has no current attachments to IUSA, Wormley said.

She said the election commission is not supposed to take positions or hold public opinions on candidates.

The election is scheduled for March 22-23, and will 
follow a March 21 debate between candidates.

A location for the debate is still unclear, Eaton said.

She said even though it is early in the election, 
topics normally discussed are student fees, campus safety and international student engagement.

Get stories like this in your inbox
Subscribe