TheSkiffView
DISGRACE
Students have right to know results

Tuesday night, the results of the Student Government Association elections were in, but if you looked in the Skiff, you couldn’t find the margins of victory anywhere. Want to know why?

Because they didn’t disclose it to the public.

Because they didn’t want the public to know.

But what we do know is that by not telling the public, SGA violated its own election code. Section 3.06 C of the code says the vote counts of each contest in the election must be released upon the request of any candidate in the contest or the press.

Elections and Regulations Chairman Nick James refused to disclose the number of votes each candidate received because he said the losing candidates would feel bad if the numbers were made public. Are we in third grade?

If candidates are mature enough to run a campaign for an office against other candidates, they should be mature enough to handle having the results of the campaign published. When it comes to running for an office, there will always be winners and losers.

This is a blatant betrayal of public trust.

Student voter participation nearly doubled from last year. James said about 2,200 students went to the polls. But by going to the polls, we have a right to know where our votes went.

If you can’t show us the numbers, how do we know that a certain candidate actually won? How do we know you are telling us the truth?

In past elections, the Skiff has had no problem getting the percentages of votes. This year, officials are treating it like top secret information. Shame on those officials.