IUSA ticket to file complaint

The Kirkwood ticket plans to file a petition with the IUSA Elections Commission today contesting the removal of a rule that says the elected ticket must have at least 40 percent of the total votes.\nKirkwood, who is backed by the College ticket and Connect Presidential Candidate John Palmer, said that according to the IUSA elections code, if a ticket does not receive that percentage or at least 20 percent more than the second-highest ticket, a run-off election must be held.\nIn last week's election, the Vote for Pedro ticket beat Kirkwood by a margin of only 50 votes out of nearly 10,000 cast.\nCollege Presidential Candidate Shane Merriweather said his ticket will join Kirkwood's petition because of a two-part problem on the election commission's part.\nFirst, tickets say they were not notified of the removal of the 40-percent clause until Feb. 17, only four days before elections began, despite a rule in IUSA's by-laws stating that no amendments may be made during the four weeks preceding elections.\nSecondly, the tickets allege that the 40 percent rule was taken out of the elections code unconstitutionally. According to the IUSA constitution, any changes must be approved by the IUSA Congress before taking effect. The three tickets said that the Elections Commission circumvented that rule by deciding among the six members whether to use it this year. \n"We would just strongly desire to have the code followed as it is written," said Bryan Strawbridge, Kirkwood's presidential candidate. "A run-off election is exactly what is called for."\nBut Derek Molter, IUSA's election coordinator, said the rule that would allow a run-off was removed from the elections code two years ago. \nThe problem lies in the fact that the elections code on IUSA's Web site, the Student Body Supreme Court's Web site and the version given to candidates still contain the 40-percent clause in Title IV, Section 403. But that is a mistake, Molter said.\n"There was no congressional record when the election code was passed," Molter said. "I don't know why. When it was being discussed, Congress removed the 40-percent revision by a large margin."\nMolter notified the tickets about the removal of the rule in the Feb. 17 e-mail and also explained that even if it had not been removed, a run-off election would be impossible.\nHe wrote in the e-mail that UITS would not be able to facilitate the run-off and that it would be extremely expensive to IUSA, which had to pay for the use of the voting Web site for the first time this year. \n"It does not seem that the rules actually passed by Congress call for a run-off, and even if they did, the run-off is not feasible," Molter wrote in the e-mail. "Therefore, there will be no run-off election. Whichever ticket receives the most votes will win."\nAlthough the tickets claim to have been unaware about the constitutionality of the removal of the rule, Molter said it was the Kirkwood ticket that actually prompted him to clarify in the e-mail.\n"The current IUSA administration had told (Kirkwood) that the provision was taken out," Molter said. "I then sent out that e-mail clarifying all this. Kirkwood expressed that they were very happy about (the removal of the rule)." \nVote for Pedro President-elect Alex Shortle also expressed awareness of the removal.\n"I was told before the election that there would be no grounds for a judgment on the 40-percent rule," Shortle said. "If they want to file it, it's fine, but it's not going to go anywhere. I guess it's that last ditch effort."\nThe tickets had not yet submitted the petition by press time, but Kirkwood Campaign Manager Andrew Lauck said it will be filed by late Monday afternoon.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Colleen Corley at ccorley@indiana.edu.