Elections Commission handbook updates increase nomination requirements

The Student Senate’s Election Commission presented updates to the elections handbook for Senate approval on Tuesday. This presentation was given by Election Commission Chairperson Nicholas Longchamp ’24. The updated ‘extended sign policy’ states that campaign posters must be 11” x 17” or smaller. The definition of a poster remains subject to the Elections Commission. The nomination requirement was also changed so that independent senators—senators not involved in Greek life—need a minimum of 200 nominations and graduate senators need at least 15 nominations to run.

Graduate Senator Zach Barringer challenged the nomination number for graduate senators, saying “Both of the years that I’m aware of, we haven’t had a full ballot.” Longchamp said he was aware of this, and that “while it was tough to get people to run, these positions that [the graduate senators] hold have that much power that talking to 15, or five other, graduate students would be a fair trade off.”

There were three appointments for members-at-large for the Executive Board: Anita Prabhakar ’25 and Kenzie Moore ’22. According to President of the Union Yaseen Mahmoud ’22, Prabhaker did not want to be appointed due to personal reasons. The motion to appoint Prabhakar was then called out of order, preventing her appointment. Kenzie Moore has been the Union Programs and Activities Committee chairperson for eight months, and with the appointment passed, obtained a voting position. The appointment passed 16-1-0.

The Senate meets Tuesday at 8 pm in the Shelnutt Gallery.