2008 Woodie Awards
McComak and Rather face off in special election
Committee could not agree on winner of vice-president-internal of Associated Students Inc.
By: Jessica Johnson
Issue date: 5/14/08 Section: News
A run-off election will be held Monday, May 19, to determine a winner in the disputed race for vice president-internal of Associated Students Inc. after no decision could be agreed upon.
The race features Tarah McComak and Kristina Rather who will face off once again after finishing so close in the original election in which, following a rules dispute, no winner could be determined.
The special election will be from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Main Dining. The ballots will be counted and announced that night in C134.
The dispute arose after vice president-internal unofficial results were announced earlier this month. The four students who ran for ASI VP-internal were McComak, Rather, Mehran Kodabandeh and Bailey Mobley.
The winner in the unofficial results was McComak with Rather second. However, Rather requested an appeal for a hand recount and wanted the issue of the counting not being public to be addressed.
"There were a lot of people who did not bubble the ballots and just circled or starred the name, so it is unfair to not count the students whose voices still want to be heard," said ASI President Andrew Janz.
Once the issues were addressed in front of the appeals committee, the committee recounted the votes by machine again and the results came out that McComak had won the election.
Rather still wanted to know why they would not hand count the ballots and not be so secretive about which ones they were counting and which ones they were not.
The elections committee representatives said they counted the ballots twice before the appeal was even made because the machine ended up counting more votes than there were ballots, Brittany Jibby, VP internal, said.
At first McComak won by one vote and the second time she won by five votes. After the committee recounted by machine, the results remained the same.
During the appeals hearing, Janz brought up the issue of what "majority wins" means because it was not explicitly stated in the constitution. So the committee decided that majority would mean 50 percent plus one.
The race features Tarah McComak and Kristina Rather who will face off once again after finishing so close in the original election in which, following a rules dispute, no winner could be determined.
The special election will be from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Main Dining. The ballots will be counted and announced that night in C134.
The dispute arose after vice president-internal unofficial results were announced earlier this month. The four students who ran for ASI VP-internal were McComak, Rather, Mehran Kodabandeh and Bailey Mobley.
The winner in the unofficial results was McComak with Rather second. However, Rather requested an appeal for a hand recount and wanted the issue of the counting not being public to be addressed.
"There were a lot of people who did not bubble the ballots and just circled or starred the name, so it is unfair to not count the students whose voices still want to be heard," said ASI President Andrew Janz.
Once the issues were addressed in front of the appeals committee, the committee recounted the votes by machine again and the results came out that McComak had won the election.
Rather still wanted to know why they would not hand count the ballots and not be so secretive about which ones they were counting and which ones they were not.
The elections committee representatives said they counted the ballots twice before the appeal was even made because the machine ended up counting more votes than there were ballots, Brittany Jibby, VP internal, said.
At first McComak won by one vote and the second time she won by five votes. After the committee recounted by machine, the results remained the same.
During the appeals hearing, Janz brought up the issue of what "majority wins" means because it was not explicitly stated in the constitution. So the committee decided that majority would mean 50 percent plus one.
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