IU Student Association president Sara Zaheer issued her second veto of the year Oct. 28 to block the appointment of Eric Langowski as chair of the Election Commission and Libby Gress as a member.
Zaheer referenced the objectivity of the members of the commission, which was the subject of heavy debate by members of Congress during the initial appointment of the commission. Since Gress had worked on tickets accused of wrongdoing in the past, representatives were unsure whether she could maintain objectivity during the next election, but Langowski said all potential commission members were made to cut ties with anyone in IUSA who might influence them.
She recommended that Congress members vote again on each member of the commission, either separately or as a whole part, instead of in a package with appointees for other commissions as was originally presented.
“For the sake of the student body and and the members of IUSA who do the good work of carrying out our mission of enriching student life and protecting student rights, don’t settle,” Zaheer said in the veto. “Take the time to write a set of rules that makes sense and appoint an Election Commission that can do the job objectively.”
Zaheer also said she vetoed the bill because the commission put forth too many members for the available number of seats and that Congress should have caught the discrepancy beforehand.
“They voted in 11 people for 10 spots, so I thought we should go back and look at this again because this is silly and it sets a bad example,” she said.
Langowski said neither he nor other members of the commission were made aware of the veto after Zaheer had sent it to Calvin Sanders, the current Speaker of the Congress. Under current IUSA bylaws, the Speaker is not required to make any vetoes available to the public or even notify the people it concerns.
The veto of two Election Commission members comes at a time when the commission is making extensive changes to the election code, with a heavy emphasis on making elections more evenly balanced and reforming Congress to be more representative of the student body. Langowski said he did not think that the revision process would be greatly affected by the veto of his or Gress’s appointments.
In a written statement on behalf of the Election Commission, Langowski said the commission was committed to implementing its code reforms this year to ensure that the elections were as fair as possible for all candidates, and that they would pursue that goal without partisan influence.
“We will not allow ourselves to become entangled in any internal, inherently political issues brought about by the current administration,” Langowski said on behalf of the Election Commission. “We will continue to fight for fair and unbiased elections, for progressive changes to the Election Code, and for elections that lead to the best representation in IU student government.”
