McLaughlin College Students’ Council Fall Election 2008
Chief Returning Officer’s Report
1. Election held to fill the positions of:
Vice – President of Financial Affairs
Vice – President of Social Cultural
Vice – President of Communications
Director of Social and Cultural Affairs
Director of Communications
Director of Academic Affairs
Director of Commuter Relations
Two (2) First Year Representatives
2. Dates:
Nomination Period:Begins: Wednesday September 17, 2008 at 9:00 AM
Ends: Wednesday September 24, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Campaigning Period: Begins: Wednesday September 24, 2008 at 7:00 PM
Ends: Tuesday October 7, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Voting Period: Begins: Tuesday October 7, 2008 at 6:01 PM
Ends: Wednesday October 15, 2007 at 11.59 AM
3. Irregularities:
Pre-campaigning
Three candidates had changed their facebook status during the nomination period, telling people that they were running in the upcoming elections. The candidates were asked to take down the information and they complied immediately.
Nominated Candidates Meeting
There were several candidates that did not attend the required meeting for all nominated candidates. Some of the candidates made alternate arrangements previous to the meeting, while others did not communicate their absence before or after the meeting. This made it very difficult to get all of the candidates contact information and correct spelling of names. The CRO and DROs held several personal meetings with candidates to provide information on the rules but others were not able to be immediately contacted. All important information for the candidates were communicated through an e-mail list of all candidates that the CRO and DRO had spoken to, including the correct spelling of names for the election ballot. In the future, I would suggest that the nomination form have a notice that requires each prospective candidate to contact the CRO or DROs with the up to date contact information.
Postering
Candidates election posters were being removed from walls on a daily basis in McLaughlin College. I contacted the Elections Review Officer at Student Community and Leadership Development, but they were not able to provide any solution to the problem. In response, candidates were given the opportunity to put up 10 posters during the voting period in places where there posters had been previously taken down.
Voting Period
The voting period for the election opened 24 hours earlier then planned due to a mistake by the Elections Review Officer at SCLD. Although this is not the ideal situation, it does not have a significant effect on the operation of the election and may have helped to increase participation. The elections review officer has been contacted to ensure that this does not happen in the future.
4. Results:
VP Finance
Colin Sequeira (Acclaimed)
VP Communications
Kaross, Ellen63
Leung, Katie75 (Elected)
Lipani, Jeff61
(abstain)22
VP Social Cultural
Hussary, Deanna Marie112 (Elected)
Waitschies, Iain70
(abstain)39
Director Academic
David Ip Yam (Acclaimed)
Director Social Cultural
Clark, Adam110 (Elected)
Tyson, Dave44
Gudgeon, Sean30
Derose, Krystina9
(abstain)29
Director Communications
Meshknfam, Mehrdad27
Naval, Nina96 (Elected)
Mistele, Mandy57
(abstain)41
Director Commuter
Shepherd, Jonathan69
Wong, Tony37
Hui, Marilyn76 (Elected)
(abstain)39
First Year Representative
- Toritshe, Omoniyi32
Neata, Andreea49
Wickham, Evan58
Ghanim, Reta14
Salimi, Rouzbeh8
Motwane, Sareena65 (Elected)
Navarrete, Cassandra28
Di Bartolomeo, Julian70 (Elected)
Rajendran, Sanjeev23
(abstain)56
5. Recommendation:
Online campaign material became a central feature utilized by candidates in this election. In order to monitor the types of material that candidates were using, all material had to be approved by a CRO or DRO. I recommendation that the same procedure be followed in the future. This allowed candidates more tools to reach out to voters and still ensured that materials could be checked.
6. All-candidate debate:
There was a high level of participation in the debate by candidates. Four candidates did not attend the debate, one of which made arrangements before the debate and another provided an explanation after the debate. There was approximately 50-60 audience members over the course of the 2 hour debate. The format for the debate permitted questions from the audience to be asked to all candidates or to an individual candidate. For most of the contested positions, the maximum amount of questions were used by the audience.
7. Conclusion:
The election was conducted in a democratic way and the candidates did a great job at running a strong and fair campaign, thus I request that the election results be ratified.
In the end I would like to thank the following people for their assistance in conducting the election:
- All of the Executives and Associates of McLaughlin College Students’ Council
- Shakira Bacchus, Master’s Office, McLaughlin College
- Christina Leonardi and Carley Wasechek, the D.R.O.s for the Fall By-Election
- Nina Nakonechnaya, CNS Development Services
- All candidates in the fall election!
Ben Keen,
Chief Returning Officer
McLaughlin College Students’ Council.
2008-2009