What you missed at SGA: Judicial Council places injunction on election

The Judicial Council announced an injunction or stopping order on all procedures and matters regarding Student Government Association elections at this week’s meeting.

Following the SGA constitution, five non-SGA members are to be selected to the election commission by the Judicial Council and approved by the two SGA advisors: Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Arnie Slaughter and Director of Student Union Sarah Aikman. The commission drafts an election packet—detailing election rules and guidelines—which is then approved by the Judicial Council and submitted to the advisors for final approval.

The election packet has been reapproved year after year with no significant alterations since 2010, according to Chief Justice Luke Price. The Judicial Council did not agree with many items in the packet, however, so they recently submitted alterations to condense the document, clarify the language and make the penalties for violating election rules more lenient.

The advisors accepted these alterations last week, but the eventual document was changed beyond what the Judicial Council originally intended. These new changes have been approved without the election commission and the Judicial Council’s notice, Price said.

“There’s nothing [in the constitution] that says our advisors can completely revise and make changes to the election packet,” Price said. “They are obviously outside of the perimeters of our rules, but we are going to fight what we see as a breach of authority and trust.”

The Judicial Council thus places an injunction on all election packet procedures, putting the election on pause entirely, until a judicial review has concluded. It is unknown how long this process will take.

Due to prior misunderstanding, the Judicial Council also established new ruling on the definitions of working number and quorum for SGA. The working number for SGA to be legally transactive—able to pass resolutions—is defined as a minimum of 25 senators and a maximum of 30 senators. The quorum—the number of senators who can vote on resolutions—is defined as half of the present working number plus one at a meeting, with the presence of the chair or SGA president. For example, the quorum would be 13 senators plus the chair if the Student Senate has 25 members.