The Student Government Association’s Coordinating Council met on Wednesday night in a successful effort to ratify this year’s SGA Senate elections.

Council members had announced concerns regarding the elections prior to Election Day; however, the elections took place. Passing with two percent more than the needed five percent student vote, this year’s Senate elections were almost complete.

Members of the Coordinating Council met again to share their concerns regarding the ratification of the elections. Those concerns were based primarily on the fact that rules were not followed. Title Eight of the SGA By-Laws states that one elections commissioner is required to be at all five voting booths throughout the election day. However, this did not occur for the second election in a row, thus raising questions within the council.

Questions were raised by two members regarding why the Elections Commission did not take time last year to secure commissioners for this year’s election.

“I think it was irresponsible on behalf of the leadership,” council member Mike Taugher said. “The leadership, the people we pay day in and out, weekdays and weekends had ample time to get this together, and they didn’t.”

Taugher continued, stating that he would be abstaining to vote on ratifying the elections due to the legalities.

“Just to clarify things, I will be abstaining my vote because I can’t consciously say yes due to the fact that the SGA has violated our By-Laws, and that’s a serious offense,” Taugher said.

Council member Bryan Thompson agreed with Taugher by explaining that he too could not vote ‘yes’ for this year’s elections.

“We need to make a statement with these elections and we need to be responsible and follow up and do what we say were going to do as the SGA,” Thompson said. “The leadership should have recognized prior to the elections that these problems would be happening.”

Other council members disagreed by explaining that it was a different leadership at the time the poor decisions were made, and that by breaking more By-Laws in order to fix the election’s mistakes would not benefit the SGA.

“You can say rules are rules, but just because they are rules, doesn’t mean that they are always right,” council member Michel Whitehouse said. “We’re not here for the rules, we’re here to help and work for the student body. They don’t care about our By-Laws, they care about parking, the dinning halls and getting into classes, and that’s what we are here for, to work things out.”

Senate Speaker Aaron Saunders agreed by explaining that the SGA was faced with a bad situation that should have been taken care of, but wasn’t.

“We just came off a rough year and we need to break the cycle,” Saunders said. “Someone dropped the ball, and the fact of the matter is that we’re the ones here now, dealing with it.”

Saunders continued by explaining that he will do everything in his power to see that this does not occur in the Presidential and Trustee elections this spring.

“I give you my word that in the next elections there will be at least five elections commissioners,” Saunders said. “What we need to do now is ratify these elections, remember them, learn from them and make changes.”

The elections were ratified by the Coordinating Council with a vote of two abstentions and three votes in favor of them. The Council passed the Senate elections with two votes in favor and three abstentions.

Council members expressed triumph as well as disappointment following the meeting.

“At least three of us realized that violations occurred,” Taugher said. “Even if they hadn’t ratified the elections, the same situation would have occurred in the next election. The leadership last year didn’t live up to their responsibilities. They should have been here day in and day out, and they neglected their responsibilities.”

Saunders expressed his excitement following the decision, stating that a dark chapter has been closed within the SGA.

“When you break it down, the SGA is really simple, but people take it further,” Saunders said. “People worked to the best of their ability to follow the By-Laws. They [the Elections Commission] worked their asses off to have a good election, and as a result the SGA and student body will reap the benefits.”

The SGA’s newly elected Senate will have two days of orientation beginning on Oct. 1-2 in which they will prepare for the first Senate meeting, to be held on Wed. Oct. 3.