Newspaper Page Text
Monday, April 12, 1999
THE MAROON TIGER
PAGE 3
Continued from page 1
Election reviews story
seven other candidates.
Smoot, who was named
to the USA Today's Best and
Brightest Team, was
accordingly featured in the
Maroon Tiger a week before
elections, thus violating the
second set of rules governing
campaigning procedure.
For his appearance in the
school newspaper, he was
disqualified a second time.
The committee agreed that
the publicity was unfair to
allowing Smoot to re-enter
the race.
Discouraged by its lack
of authority and the
overruling of its decision by
Dean Gaffney, the committee
submitted a letter of
resignation to Dean Brian
Phifer on Monday, March 29.
In a meeting with the
students, Dean Gaffney
commented that his decision
was due to "lack of
information." The commitee
Shaun Spearmon/Staff
Limitedvoting booths discouraged voter turnout
the other candidates and held
Smoot responsible for the
placement of his picture in
the Maroon Tiger.
Smoot told Shaun
Spearmon, a Co-Editor of the
newspaper and Alpha, that
his appearance in the
newspaper would not
invalidate his candidacy. The
caption of the picture was
comprised of both the the
Inside the House newsletter
reconvened, but only on the
conditions that Smoot's case
be taken into the student
judicial courts. The courts
upheld the Election
Commitee's initial call for
disqualification and Smoot
was "removed” from the
ballot.
Impromptu election
debates were held the night
of Thursday, April 1 in front
of Sale Hall. The debates
The scene at Wednesday's rally
and the USA Today article
and its use was agreed upon
by all three co-editors.
Dean Gaffney once again
stepped in and overruled the
commitee's decision for
disqualification, thus
were an open-forum,
question and answer session
in which candidates
responded to previously
prepared queries. All
candidates running for office
were given a predetermined
time to speak.
Committee
chairman Marcus
Downs was
addressing the
crowd about
conduct when he
was suddenly
interrupted by the
disqualified Smoot.
Surrounded by a
cadre of Alpha Phi
Alpha supporters,
Smoot proceeded
to express his
outrage over the
findings of the
investigation
against him. The
crowd in
attendance grew
hostile towards the
outburst and several
pointedly personal questions
were thrown at Smoot. Chaos
reigned for the next few
miutes as Smoot and SGA
presidential candidate
Caishe Falls had to be
restrained. The Committee
eventually restored order to
the event and the crowd
dispersed.
Monday, April 5, election
day, saw long lines at the
voting booths, confusing
ballots and last minute
politicking, especially on the
part of Ben Wheatley. The
senior who passed out
various materials including a
completed voting slate
endorsing certain candidates
over others in all
positionsBen Wheatley
After counting the
ballots Tuesday morning, the
Elections Committee
returned with what they
called "invalid" results. The
committee said that the
validity of the votes was in
question because of the
inclusion of write-in
candidates on the ballot, a
practice not sponsored by the
Election Committee's rules.
The unanticipated
inclusion of write-in
candidates stemmed from
Dean Gaffney's advice that
candidates who were
disqualified or left off the
ballot use the write-in
process to remain in
contention.
On Wednesday, April 7,
at 8:30AM, students gathered
in front of Gloster Hall. Led
by Chris Jones and Marcus
Downs, they protested the
administration's interference
in the student electoral
process and demanded
another meeting with Johnny
Nimes, Dean Phifer and
Dean Gaffney.
The committee and
administration agreed to, for
the first time ever, reopen the
voting polls on Wednesday,
Shaun Spearmon/Staff
Counting write-in ballots contributed to Tuesday's confusion
April 14 because of
inconsistencies with the
procedures. No write-in
votes will be allowed and
all prior disqualifications
will remain intact.
Jones under scrutiny
Continued from page 1
Philip Asbury/Staff
SGA President Chris Jones has been losing support
from SGA and students
it created a rift between Chris and
those that just aren't as religious
as he is." Jones's former chief of
staff, Scott Davis dismisses these
statements: "The student body is
not so stupid as to believe that
Chris held the executive board
hostage with a bible in one hand
and a Kirk Franklin album in the
other."
Much of the criticism focused
on Jones'lack of experience. Bell
continued, "Compared to past
presidents, I think Chris did an
average job. I think a lack of
experience hurt him." However,
Davis claims the problems, in fact,
lay with the executive board:
"Their claim that Chris was the
reason for all the problems with
this year's administration is sure
to win them the "Ni##a Please
award of Excellence for
Scapegoating".
Jones has also come under
fire most recently for his absence
from the SG Aoffice. According to
numerous SGAsources,following
Jones' acceptance to MIT, he
became increasingly hard to find,
and was rarely in the office.
Jones, however has been
increasingly vocal during this
year's election debate. Jones
provided crucial leadership and
support for the election committee
during Wednesday's protest.
Jones spoke out against what
many students feel is undue
interference by the administration
in this election, particularly the in
and out saga of Jason Smoot's
campaign for SGA president.
Davis offered a rationale for
the recent criticism: "I have only
known of two members of the
executive board who were
dissatisfied with Chris prior to last
month. My only question is when
did they realize that they were
dissatisfied; after they all went to
Candle in the Dark, after they
went on all those trips and
conferences, or after the long
distance code was cancelled
because of their overuse?"