When West Virginia University closed Friday because of winter weather concerns, it created complications for Student Government Association hopefuls trying to turn in their required forms.
The hopefuls had to turn in their packets four hours earlier when the deadline was moved to 1 p.m. because of the closing.
SGA presidential and vice presidential candidates along with their 15 governor and two athletic council hopefuls were required to turn in completed signatures, forms and an academic transcript to elections chairs.
Two governor hopefuls from the Mountaineer Choice Party were unable to meet this deadline because they couldn’t get off work, said Ian McCulloch, president candidate for the Mountaineer Choice Party.
Because the deadline was moved on short notice, Matt Gutta, SGA elections chair, said he made exceptions for the two candidates.
The deadline at 1 p.m. was not strictly enforced, he said.
“There was talk that we were going to cut off the time at 1 because of the closing,” Gutta said. “We ended up hanging around in the office after that. If they came in a little later, we made an understanding for them.”
McCulloch said he is dropping off the late packets to Gutta Monday, and the two governor hopefuls will not be penalized.
Even though two of them were late, McColloch said everyone on his ticket turned in completed forms with the required amount of signatures.
With packets behind them, he said his party is looking forward to the future.
“We are now in the home stretch,” McColloch said. “With campaigning coming up, we are all getting pretty excited.”
To prevent late or incomplete packets, Chris Lewallen, presidential candidate for the PIRATE Party required hopefuls on his ticket to turn them in to him a day early. Lewallen said he wanted to check over the packets before they were due the next day.
“We were in pretty good shape. Everybody turned everything in on time,” Lewallen said. “Now we are just moving into the organizational stuff before we start campaigning.”
Gutta said he was proud of both tickets for not waiting until the last minute to complete the required packet information.
Presidential and vice presidential candidates had to collect signatures from 5 percent of the student body, or approximately 1,500 students. Governor and athletic council hopefuls had to have 2.5 percent, or approximately 700.
Most hopefuls completed their signatures that morning or the day before, Gutta said.
Though there was an issue earlier in the month when a governor candidate was given an outdated “Appendix II” form, he said. The outdated form required hopefuls to list their social security numbers.
Once the mistake was realized, Gutta said the hopeful was given an updated form that did not require the number.
Appendix II forms are used for information like hopefuls’ birth names, addresses and student identification numbers.
Gutta said he and fellow elections chair, Ben Dooley, will complete checking the forms for validity by tonight. If hopefuls do not receive a phone call from him stating otherwise, they are ready to campaign, he said.
travis.crum@mail.wvu.edu
Be the first to comment on this article!