In true SG fashion, the details of this week's election problem are murky at best: An anonymous student approached the Board of Elections Nov. 19 to complain that Paul Grever, now vice president-elect, was campaigning illegally. According to the anonymous source, Grever's friends set up a laptop in the lobby of MGC - one of six places where campaigning is prohibited - to persuade students who had not yet voted to choose Grever as VP.
It is unclear whether Grever was sitting with his friends when they decided to defy the SG's election regulations. However, Article V, Section i of election protocol specifies that each candidate is responsible for ensuring all campaigners follow election procedures, a rule that Grever clearly failed to follow, no matter whether his friends were official campaign staff.
But in a special hearing later that day, the BOE determined Grever was not responsible for his friends' conduct. He subsequently won the election by a slim, 1 percent margin.
There are two equally disturbing problems with the BOE's decision. First, whatever happened to transparency? The SG maintains the BOE to ensure transparency and fairness, yet an anonymous student is the only reason we know of this potential wrongdoing. BOE hearings are private, confidential matters, but the SG pays the vice president $9,500 a year. Some accountability is more than deserved.
Secondly, why was the BOE tolerant of Grever's behavior? Prior to this controversy, the BOE reprimanded Grever for creating a Facebook group ahead of the nominating convention, another abuse of election protocol.
Since the beginning of this semester, The Eagle has editorialized on SG election matters an astonishing four times, this being our fifth. Yet, once again, we are left baffled by election procedures and disappointed by an overall lack of transparency and communication. If students are half as tired of reading this as we are of writing it, they should demand some accountability from the SG. And if Grever cares as much about the students who elected him as he says he does, he'll make the responsible decision and come clean with students. The last thing we need is another discredited SG exec.
