Election grievance cause of setback

The University of Central Oklahoma Student Association’s Election Commissioner, Jake Eads, had a busy Monday following the presidential run-off election for UCOSA the previous Thursday.

“To whom it may concern, I would like to file an official grievance against the Webb-Martinez ticket on the terms of the UCOSA Campaign Rules section 209, 210 and 216,” read the complaint submitted to the election committee by president and vice president candidates Meleah Meyer and Rylan Bolt.

The candidates Meyer and Bolt accused now President-elect Alex Webb and his vice president, Emma Martinez, of voter fraud.

Eads confirmed the investigation into the grievance is what slowed the announcement process of a winner.

In the grievance Meyer details several instances where Webb and Martinez approached students across the university with QR codes offering them the ability to vote.

“While Martinez did not explicitly say who to vote for, I would call this action voter fraud,” reads the grievance drafted by the Meyer/Bolt ticket.

Meyer and Bolt argued in the grievance that while the now president and vice president-elect did not directly encourage the students to vote for a specific candidate, it would encourage students who were not aware of UCOSA to vote for the candidate offering the code.

Section 209 states that voter fraud is defined as any form of intimidation upon a student, with or without malicious intent.

Section 210 states that dorm-storming is strictly prohibited. Dorm-storming is defined as the campaign action incorporating door-knocking within living situations to solicit votes.

Section 216 states that no candidate shall provide any means of casting a ballot.

Many of these rules, especially Section 216, were drafted when paper ballots were used for students to cast ballots.

“I cannot speak on what Meleah and Rylan planned on what they wanted to ideally accomplish, but it shone a light that a lot of campaigning rules that we have within UCOSA statutes are not modernized and updated,” said Eads.

Despite the announcement setback, the election committee found the results to be accurate. Alex Webb and Emma Martinez are the current elects for the next UCOSA administration.