The races for student body vice president and speaker of the student senate ended Wednesday night, with Emily Dengler being elected for vice president and Morgiana McDevitt being elected for speaker.
The presidential and treasurer elections will go on to a runoff due to no candidate receiving 50% of the vote.
The first thing McDevitt, a third-year economics student, said the first thing she wanted to do in office was to revitalize the senate's Instagram to start talking to students “as soon as possible.”
“Myself, freshman year, would never have imagined I would be been in this position in the first place. So, kind of emotional looking back to that, but really, just honored to have been elected and thankful for all the support I’ve had from my friends throughout this time,” McDevitt said.
Dengler, a third-year public health student, said her first action in office would be to expand the Carolina Closet by working with the Career Center to supply the closet with more clothes.
“I’m really excited to bring back programming to the vice president's office. Especially with COVID right now, there hasn't been that many, and I think there’s a lot of ways we can have safe, fun things to make the students feel more connected. So, I’m really excited to get that started,” Dengler said.
The runoff elections will be held on March 2 and 3. The candidates for the presidential runoffs are third-year marketing student Aidan Baker and third-year political science and criminal justice student Alex Harrell. The candidates for the treasurer runoff are Kate Turner and Jack Lind. The candidates were decided because they received the most votes compared to the other candidates.
Harrell said he and his running mate, Turner, were pumped to be going into the runoff.
“I’ve had the privilege of working on campaigns that went to runoffs; never been the candidate for one. I know it’s a grind, and we got a little bit more to go and are ready to do it,” Harrell said.
Baker said going forward into another week of campaigning, he would be focusing on the student body and “continuing to work hard.”
“I'm very excited. I'm proud of my team, and everyone that's working so hard while I’ve been at home and trusted our vision and trusted this movement. I mean, we're not done yet, so it's gonna be a short celebration, and we're back to work,” Baker said.
The results of the student body president and student body treasurer elections were delayed by a hearing on a campaign violation filed by Janel Moore on behalf of the Lind campaign.
Moore, the campaign manager for the Lind campaign, alleged that the Harrell-Turner campaign violated campaigning rules by waving campaign signs on the sidewalk outside of The Corner Blend. The Lind campaign alleged that this violated a section of the Student Government Election Codes, which specifies that campaign materials “may only be placed in university posting locations and other places specifically designated for announcements and public notices.”
“What we're discussing right now is basically a clarification of the rule of something being placed in regards to university posting locations,” Moore, a fourth-year global studies student, said. “At the conclusion of this meeting we will have a clear definition of what ‘placed’ means, and our election codes will be able to use that as precedence moving forward.”
Sawyer McDuffie, who represented the Harrell-Turner campaign during the hearing, denied these allegations. He said the language of the “Posting Section” of the Student Government Election Codes only prohibits “affixed” campaign signs on non-approved university posting locations.
“Holding a sign is simply not posting any type of thing. That’s the same as wearing a T-shirt, you know? I can wear a T-shirt that says Harrell-Turner on it to anywhere I want to, without any type of regulation being put on me,” McDuffie, a third-year political science student, said.
The constitutional council ruled that the Harrell-Turner campaign was not in violation of any election codes.
The Daily Gamecock has reached out to Lind’s campaign and is awaiting comment on the outcome of the council’s ruling.