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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
The Observer

Final three election tickets approved

The remaining three tickets in the student body president/vice president elections have received approval of their petitions to run. The tickets of Mark Healy and Mike Healy, Adam Istvan and Karla Bell, and Ryan Craft and Steve Lynch were notified last Tuesday of their approval for the race.In order to be approved, petitions are first verified by Judicial Council president Elliot Poindexter. Petitions are then sent to the Office of Student Affairs and to the Registrar. The candidates must be in good standing with each office.Petitions were due Jan. 23, but three tickets were turned in well before the deadline. The Charlie Ebersol-James Leito ticket, which the candidates turned in on Jan. 19, was approved Jan. 20, said Director of Student Activities Brian Coughlin. The three other tickets, however, were not approved until Jan. 27.Student body presidential candidate Mark Healy said he turned in his petition on Jan. 20 but was not notified of its approval until Jan. 27. He said he was unaware of any problems with either the Office of Student Affairs or the Registrar. "I was not notified of any problems," Mark Healy said. "I went almost every day that the Student Government was open to meet with Elliot Poindexter to see if my petition had been approved, and he said that it wasn't."Mark Healy said he felt the length of time it took to get the final three petitions approved needed to be explained."I think that it's something that needs to be looked into," he said. "It seems peculiar that it would take so long for the rest of us to be approved, when it didn't take that long for the first ticket to be approved."The Istvan-Bell petition was turned in on Jan. 21, Istvan said, and Craft said he turned in his petition on Jan. 23. Neither candidate said they were notified of any problems in approving their petitions."It's taking forever to go through the approval process, trying to get everything in," Istvan said.When asked about the amount of time it took for the Healy-Healy and Istvan-Bell tickets to be approved, Coughlin said that both were approved by the Office of Student Affairs on Jan. 22, but were held up in the Registrar's office. "The Healy ticket and the Istvan ticket [were faxed] to the Registrar's office on Jan. 21. We didn't hear anything from them," Coughlin said. "When the Craft ticket showed up ... we faxed their names, and we re-faxed the Healy and Istvan tickets. When they [were approved] ... there was a little note saying 'Sorry for the delay.' They were in the Registrar's office for five days," Coughlin said.