WSA presidency being contested
The Western Student Association is without a president as the Election Control Board (ECB) contested the results of the 2009 presidential election over charges that the campaign of Nate Knappen and Janine Putnam violated terms of the Election Control Board.Somebody call the police!
Knappen/Putnam received 60 percent of the vote, with 1,200 votes. Stacy Nordstrand and Courtney Dunsmore got 38 percent with 800, and 40 votes were write in candidates, making up two percent. The election had a record turn out of 2,104 voters, compared to 1,800 last year.
The charges are that Knappen solicited votes with his laptop, which is against the Student Election Code (SEC). Knappen was accused of violating sections 1.4, 2.3, 3.4, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.6, 5.7, and 6.2 of the E.C.B. and was convicted of all but 2.3, 4.1 and 5.7.
Knappen said he allowed about 10 students to vote on his laptop for the candidate of their choice at the flag poles, and said he stopped as soon as the seize and desist was issued.Side note: what a stupid paper.
After the charges were made, the ECB sent them to the Judicial Committee for further review. They contested the election on Friday at 5:01 p.m.; the poles closed at 5 p.m.Of course, we all know that the ECB and Judicial Council are totally unbiased institutions and that nobody on them has ever been a political ally of a candidate.
The Judicial Council ruled that Knappen did not maliciously break the rules, but was ignorant.
Side note: 'poles'? Seriously?
A bunch of commenters are passionate about the issue for no apparent reason. One offers this timely reminder.
One cannot ignore the difference between malficience and misficence (I think spelled those correctly).Thankfully, Western students can rest assured that no matter who wins the election, the WSA will still be a ridiculous waste of time.
1 comment:
I'm just laughing because I remember when we had a nice discussion over malfeasance and misfeasance (I'm not sure if I spelled those correctly). One person asked a candidate of the position when they themselves didn't know the answer.
I think the WSA became a joke shortly after I left. I remember coming back to K-zoo once on a Wednesday and decided to drop in. The speaker at the time made a statement in the middle of a discussion despite the fact that a speaker is not supposed to do this. The worst part is the speaker aknowledged this by prefacing his remarks by saying he was stepping down as speaker for a moment, gave his thoughts, and resumed his speaker duties. The sad part is no one called him on it. Perhaps the WMU CRs need to take back the influence we used to have there.
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