Residence Hall Association to redo 4 elections

The Residence Hall Association’s judicial board will decide Wednesday night if one of the Hoosier Compass ticket members will be disqualified from the elections.

In addition, the Residence Hall Association will hold a reelection Thursday in Briscoe Quad, Read Center, Willkie Quad and Ashton Center in an attempt to make the voting process more fair, said senior Eric Gibson, current RHA president.

The Chuck Norris ticket contested the results of the March 3 RHA elections by providing a document listing the violations.

After an election commissioners’ meeting Sunday night, officials decided that a redo of the elections would take place in the respective residence halls in which violations were occurred because of campaigning from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday.

In Read Center and Willkie Quad, ticket candidates of the Hoosier Compass party were too close to the polling stations, while in Read Center and Briscoe Quad posters were also hung too close to the polling stations.

The elections will be reconducted in Ashton Center because the election commissioners said they felt the election was not publicized properly, Gibson said.

“We don’t think that we have done anything wrong to have somebody get disqualified,” said senior Jessica Schul, presidential candidate for Hoosier Compass. “We are disappointed because this is not the outcome we wanted. We are hopeful and we trust the decision of the RHA judicial board.”

After judicial board officials decide Wednesday, the name of the individual associated with the Hoosier Compass ticket will be released, Gibson said. RHA officials have previously declined to release that information.

The name of the individual accused of the violation might not be disqualified from the Hoosier Compass ticket. If the name is released and the decision is overturned then stress can be created, said Sarah Nagy, staff adviser for RHA.

The decision to redo the elections came after research and examination from the RHA election commissioners, Gibson said.

Commissioners saw posters hung up in the residence halls as well as pictures that some members of the Chuck Norris ticket provided as evidence of the accused violations.

Junior and presidential candidate for the Chuck Norris ticket Aaron Collins said he is pleased with the decision, because now the election results can be justified and can run smoothly.

Each of the votes from the first election will be erased from the four residence halls so afterward there will be new totals, Gibson said.