2008 Woodie Awards
Letter: URI senator says election undemocratic
Issue date: 3/4/08 Section: Editorial/Opinion
03/04/08 - To the Cigar,
In regards to student senate president candidate Josh Feinberg's disqualification, I was in the Student Entertainment Committee office Thursday before the elections were over, and clearly saw on opposite sides of the walls one poster for each campaign team.
For the committee to say that it was against the rules for a poster to have been in the Latin American Student Association room, answer me why there has yet to be any investigation about the posters in the SEC office? Is this room also not in the Union, where there is clearly a no-tolerance policy for advertising?
I think with such a huge win of 96 votes, a disqualification would be irrational.
In the campaigning section of the senate election rules it states that "any legal method of promotion or advertisement may be utilized by any candidate."
I find it absolutely ridiculous to even consider the Feinberg/Klos T-shirts as part of the reasoning behind their disqualification.
People were given shirts as a reward for helping with the grueling hours put into the competitive campaign.
Who is the committee to start delegating the place someone is allowed to wear a shirt they were given as appreciation?
It's not like students were rallying around the ballot tables waving around their shirts and shoving Feinberg/Klos pens into students' hands as they crossed their fingers hoping for that one extra vote. This was not the case whatsoever.
Can anyone seriously answer me how that one poster in the LASA office, a few Feinberg/Klos pens and T-shirts became the result of a whopping 96 vote win?
Because if this is this case, I'm sure Feinberg and Klos wouldn't have worked so hard to push so many flyers and reach out to so many different groups of people.
The only truly democratic solution would be to hold a re-vote. That way, it will be apparent how many students show true dedication to their candidates and are willing to come back out to the Union and make sure the right young man is put into office for this position.
I continue to hold high respects for the opposing candidates as I feel they both qualify exceptionally for the job, but I feel that the way Ahrens and Bedard "won" this election was not really winning at all.
Angie Abbe
Student Senate
In regards to student senate president candidate Josh Feinberg's disqualification, I was in the Student Entertainment Committee office Thursday before the elections were over, and clearly saw on opposite sides of the walls one poster for each campaign team.
For the committee to say that it was against the rules for a poster to have been in the Latin American Student Association room, answer me why there has yet to be any investigation about the posters in the SEC office? Is this room also not in the Union, where there is clearly a no-tolerance policy for advertising?
I think with such a huge win of 96 votes, a disqualification would be irrational.
In the campaigning section of the senate election rules it states that "any legal method of promotion or advertisement may be utilized by any candidate."
I find it absolutely ridiculous to even consider the Feinberg/Klos T-shirts as part of the reasoning behind their disqualification.
People were given shirts as a reward for helping with the grueling hours put into the competitive campaign.
Who is the committee to start delegating the place someone is allowed to wear a shirt they were given as appreciation?
It's not like students were rallying around the ballot tables waving around their shirts and shoving Feinberg/Klos pens into students' hands as they crossed their fingers hoping for that one extra vote. This was not the case whatsoever.
Can anyone seriously answer me how that one poster in the LASA office, a few Feinberg/Klos pens and T-shirts became the result of a whopping 96 vote win?
Because if this is this case, I'm sure Feinberg and Klos wouldn't have worked so hard to push so many flyers and reach out to so many different groups of people.
The only truly democratic solution would be to hold a re-vote. That way, it will be apparent how many students show true dedication to their candidates and are willing to come back out to the Union and make sure the right young man is put into office for this position.
I continue to hold high respects for the opposing candidates as I feel they both qualify exceptionally for the job, but I feel that the way Ahrens and Bedard "won" this election was not really winning at all.
Angie Abbe
Student Senate