By Susannah Waite, Editor-in-Chief
When students went online to vote Monday for Student Government Association officials, one candidate’s name was not on the ballot.
Jacilyn Kennedy, SGA presidential candidate, was disqualified from the election March 11. She lost her appeal March 14.
Kennedy, entertainment business junior, was one of six students who filed for the office. It is the highest number of students to run for president in recent years.
The hearings and decision to disqualify Kennedy came after a complaint filed March 9, by Mitch Thrower, SGA presidential candidate and Esteban Silva, Thrower’s campaign manager.
Thrower’s complaint stated Rhameil Sampson approached him about stepping down and endorsing Kennedy in exchange for a position in Kennedy’s administration if she were elected.
Kennedy and Sampson, her campaign manager, both appealed, said Harmonniey Cheadle, chief justice of Student Court.
Student Court ruled on the appeal March 14 and announced the same day they would not reveal the official decision on Kennedy’s appeal until after the election.
The official decision was scheduled to be announced at March 26 Student Senate meeting during Cheadle’s executive report.
Beatrize Martinez, SGA presidential candidate said she supported whatever decision the court made, but she was concerned about the decision to wait until after elections to reveal the outcome of the appeals case.
“It’s not fair to our students because what we’ve been about is open communication,” Martinez said.
Kennedy made a statement March 16 regarding the outcome of the appeals hearing.
“The court decided that we did not have enough evidence to overturn the original decision, therefore the original decision was upheld and I was disqualified,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy said she received four charges.
“The four charges were enticement, persistent act, a willful act, and election fraud,” she said.
The issue could have been avoided if there was more communication between candidates, Kennedy said.
“If I had know that anyone on my campaign had said anything that could have been misleading or quote unquote shady, I would have taken them out of my campaign, because I don’t want to be associated with that,” she said.
Kennedy said she is concerned about how students will perceive SGA in the future.
“I just feel that this is going to make it very hard for organizations to trust SGA and this has put SGA in a bad light,” Kennedy said.
“We never had the intention of doing that, because we only wanted to make SGA a place that could work together with organizations to make OCU better.”
Students voted March 25-26.
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