After holding its first election two weeks ago, Student Government will hold another election today after disputed campaign documents caused a series of University Court cases culminating in a decision to hold an election do-over.
Voting begins at 7 a.m. and closes at 6:59 p.m. The results will be announced at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Live Oak Lounge.
Voting in the run-off elections will be held between 7 a.m. and 6:59 p.m. on Wednesday, and those results will be announced at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in the Live Oak Lounge.
Impact LSU presidential candidate T Graham S. Howell and vice presidential candidate Kaitlin Torké won the original election after Unite LSU’s presidential candidate John Woodard and vice presidential candidate Taylor Parks were disqualified despite receiving the most votes.
The Unite LSU ticket was disqualified by the election board over a series of disputed campaign financial documents.
The election board’s decision to disqualify Unite LSU from the election started a series of UCourt hearings between Unite LSU and the election board.
The first UCourt hearing on March 16 was an appeal filed by Joe Gipson, an adviser to the Unite ticket. The appeal dealt with whether the election board had the right to disqualify Unite LSU, and the UCourt ruled in the election board’s favor.
After losing the appeal hearing, Kristina Lagasse, who prepared Unite LSU’s financial documents, filed a complaint against the election board, citing it incorrectly executed its power by revaluing Unite LSU’s financial documents.
The UCourt ruled in favor of Lagasse on March 17 and granted the relief requested, which was to rescind the election board’s decision to disqualify all Unite LSU candidates, and immediately resulted in all Unite LSU candidates being reinstated as winners.
However, on March 20, SG Solicitor General Shauncey Hunter filed a petition for an injunction of the 2013 SG elections, which was then heard by the UCourt and Chief Justice Morgan Faulk. The court voted unanimously to hold a new election. The court’s decision was then executed and announced by SG President Taylor Cox at last week’s SG Senate meeting.
