SGA Elections Ignites Uproar Across Student Body

by Alonzo Clark and Sage Wallace-Williams

Quicker than a match striking a matchbox, the Student Government Association (SGA) Mr. and Miss North Carolina A&T spring election race has ignited much controversy across the student body.

Students have expressed public uproar over the disqualification of Mr. A&T candidate, Derek Edwards and the overall lack of transparency during the run-off elections.

Voting polls for the run-off elections opened on April 4 from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Based upon the SGA Campaign Guide and Election Protocol, only those who qualified for a run-off election are candidates who did not surpass the 50% plus 1 margin in their respective race. This rule applied to everyone running for both Mr. and Miss A&T.

The two candidates running for Miss A&T was Kamaria Bush, a junior biology student and Jada Brown, a junior psychology student. Those running for Mister A&T was Kendall Mack, a junior agriculture and business student and Derek Edwards, a junior supply chain management student.

During the general election, Edwards and Mack defeated their opponent, Kenneth Gorham, who only had 825 voters. While Mack took the majority of votes with 1636 votes, the remaining votes for Edwards was left with 1446.

As for Miss A&T, Nasya Blackwell lost with 749 votes, leaving Brown and Bush into the run-offs. Bush took home 46 percent of the votes, as Brown was the runner-up having 34 percent of the votes.

Although Mack and Edwards, had the numbers to participate in a run-off election for Mister A&T, Edwards was not listed on the voting ballot and was informed of his disqualification the same day as run-off elections.

The disqualification is because Edwards allegedly hosted an event on April 3 outside of Pride Hall. The university protocol of section 5.1 said, “A non-affiliated/external group or individual’s use of space must be sponsored by a University Group, student organization group, or a minimum of five students or five faculty members.”

During this event, care packages and cards were made for the students of Stoneman Douglas High School. In addition, another campaign violation occurred when Edwards served Chick-Fil-A nuggets.

According to the Campaign Procedures and Elections Protocol of Fall 2017, under “Campaign Guideline”, “the use of food must be submitted in written proposal to the Elections Committee to be approved. Food must be individually wrapped with a seal and an ingredient label.”

As result of this alleged information, Edwards was disqualified from the campaign race hours before the run-off elections opened.

In rebuttal to the Elections Committee ruling, Edwards provided evidence and witness accounts for an appeal. The appeal consisted of records of how other competitors and candidates violated the unpackaged food clause.

One of the examples, was when Mack, along with three others served unpackaged food to students in the Aggies Villages on March 28. Evidence that supports this claim comes from one of Mack’s tweet saying:

“Come out to Village Classroom 5 at 11:00am to vote and receive pizza, wings, texas roadhouse and more! VOTE TODAY! #Ncat.”

Unlike Edwards, those candidates did not get disqualified, but were allegedly sent an email that disapproved of their actions, and issued a $25 fine for each campaign participant on March 28.

Shortly after the opening of polls on the run-off election day, the student body publicly questioned and expressed concern over the lack of explanation for Edwards’s disqualification through Twitter.

Some of the students resulted to make the decision to vote, as some chose not to vote based on the Edwards missing slot under the Mr. A&T on the ballot.

Due to the massive backlash over the run-off elections, an open senate forum on April 5 was held to address public concern.

At the senate forum, more information was able to surface over Edwards disqualification. It was revealed that Diamond Baker, the former chair of the Elections Committee, gave Edwards approval for his event and the food associated with it on April 3.

Later during the senate forum, the choice was given to the elections committee to decide if there should be a special election or have the candidates run again for the Fall semester.

Leah Gray, a junior who double majors in childhood development and psychology spoke voiced what students should try to understand.

“Student should really realize with this election, previous and future elections that we should take more accountability on ourselves. Some of the injustices and things are wrong are problems that we are continuing having because of administration and them not doing the job that their facing as our advisors,” she said.

Recently, Melody C. Pierce, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs sent out an email stating the a re-election will occur on April 27th from 8:00 a.m.- 6:00 p.m.

For additional information, look under the media tab on Twitter @theATRegister.