In response to last year’s election season, the SGA is working to prevent identical situations like it in the future. SGA Senators Evan Leiter-Mason and Collin Sullivan have been working on amending implementing two major pieces of legislation to ensure a successful election season this year.
A Synopsis of Changes to the Election Policy
Fixes the Board to 7 members, and requires that 2 members each by appointed by the Election Board Chair, the Speaker of the Senate, and the Chair of the Finance Board
Establishes the duties of the Election Board Chair to publicize the election and candidates, report complaints to the Election Board and investigate them, maintain a shared email account, and publicize sanctions
Requires the Election Board to exercise due process in its investigations and binds the Election Board to an evidence standard of “more likely than not”
Requires the Election Board to vote and deliberate in person, except when voting to either dismiss a complaint or open an official investigation. In those cases, the Election Board is permitted to utilize official UMBC email
Bans in-person campaigning at the Shady Grove satellite campus
Explicitly requires the Election Board Chair to certify election results
Why the Election Policy is Being Amended
Helps prevent election fraud from either candidates or the Election Board
Makes SGA more accountable by providing clearer language throughout the policy
Identifies key problems throughout the past several years during the Election Season.
A Synopsis of Implementation of the Appeal Board
A new Board that will hear any cases where one party feels another party has violated any SGA Guiding Document
Consists of 5 voting members: one member from each charter organization on campus - (seb), The Retriever, RSA, and 2 members nominated by the President and confirmed with Joint Legislation
The Convener is an individual determined by the Director of Student Life who is a faculty or staff member from The Division of Student Affairs. The Convener will only call the Board to meet, and act as a contact for petitions, and will have no voting rights on the Board.
Petitions submitted to the Convener is what will call the Board to meet. A petition must be signed by either 5% of the undergraduate population, or a petition signed by 7 sitting elected SGA Officials.
The Board will hear both sides of any particular case and make a final ruling. Their final decision will stand
Why the Board is Being Established
Allows for SGA to handle charges and accusations in-house; we will no longer need a last minute bail-out from administrators
A completely new system that is unlike Supreme Courts used across the nation that are plagued with corruption
This Board would have enabled SGA to internally resolve the problems from last year’s election
All legislation is now available to the public as a read-only document. Any and all feedback is encouraged in the comments section below. Or, if you wish, please feel free to contact the writers of the legislation at leiter1@umbc.edu or csulli1@umbc.edu. The Joint Legislation is expected to pass by the end of November, followed by a Special Election to approve the constitutional amendments. The Special Election is open to all undergraduate students at UMBC. More details, including time, location, administration of the election, and dates, will be announced in the near future.
