This year, fall run-offs were a little outside of the normas all four of the Miss Senior candidates found their names back on the ballot for re-election. The election would ultimately lead to another run-off, which will be held on Thursday, Sept. 10 in the Memorial Student Union from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
This is the second election that has taken place on campus in the last 6 months in which things had to be done all over again. The polls officially closed last Tuesday night with seniors Bree Pelham and Dominique Donaldson as the two clear frontrunners of the race, each getting 59 and 76 votes, or 27.18 percent and 35.02 percent, respectively.
So what happened to cause all the confusion? Miss Senior Candidate Elesia Summers-Thomas said that protocol and procedures had been violated, causing her to file an appeal to the decision after the polls closed and the initial results were announced.
“There were discrepancies and elections committee did what they needed to do to rectify the situation. Some of the protocol was violated, so I filed an appeal on Wednesday morning,” Summers-Thomas said. “You have to speak up when you feel that mistakes have been made, and that’s what I did. I spoke up for what I thought was right and fair. The elections committee listened to what I had to say and they made a decision based on evidence that was provided based on all sides of the story.”
Pelham says that she feels the decision was fair. While she didn’t agree with the overall situation, she seemed to be optimistic about the election. However, she did feel that all the time being spent on elections would negatively impact the position and elections in the end.
“My opinion on that is just basically that it (re election) is holding up the process. It is prolonging the time that Miss Senior is going to have to step up to the title and fulfill her duties. I hope the best person wins and I feel like a couple of people that are running are handling the situation as selflessly as possible,” Pelham said.
“Some people are very discouraged (to vote because) they don’t understand why everyone is back on the ballot, and they were expecting this to be the final decision. Really what it all boils down to is that this position is about service, and being a female representative of the class. It shouldn’t be about bickering or fighting and with or without the crown, I’m going to do what I said I would do.”
Erika Edwards, the third person in the running for the position was not out campaigning on Tuesday, and was not available for comment at the time of press. Pelham said that Edwards chose not to run again due to all the stress of the situation.
Donaldson, on the other hand, was out campaigning with the other two candidates. She also felt that while the situation was unusual the decision was fair.
“I didn’t really know what to think at first, however I wasn’t threatened at all. I was just like ‘there’s nothing I can do about it, all I can do is go harder than I did before.’ Even though we only had a day (Friday) to campaign, and Monday was a holiday, I spent all day on Friday hanging up fliers and campaigning, and I’ve been on campus since 8:15 this morning until now, (6pm Tuesday),” Donaldson said.
“The only people that know the real truth are the elections committee. I think they did a really good job of keeping everything honest, and disclosing only pertinent information.”
In the end, the Elections Committee announced Donaldson and Summers-Thomas wound up being the two candidates in the run-off on Thursday after the results on Tuesday night.
While they have not been certified yet, they are not expected to change.
The candidates all said that hopefully all the elections procedures would be finished and a Miss Senior will be in place to sit with Mr. Senior at the first football home opener this weekend against Norfolk State.
Only time will tell.
- Dexter R. Mullins