Mississippi State University’s Student Association Senate passed Bill 26 Tuesday, reforming the Student Association election codes to allow candidates for Homecoming Court positions and Mr. and Miss MSU to campaign.
The bill, which passed 40-2, allows campaigning for Homecoming candidates and opens up Mr. and Miss MSU for 16 calendar days of campaigning prior to the election with a $250 spending limit, Senator Edward Sanders said.
During this year’s Homecoming elections, friends of candidates campaigning for such positions caused controversy by campaigning for candidates through the Web site facebook.com. The Web site also caused controversy during the SA executive officer elections last spring.
The bill also lowered the number of campaigning violations allowed before disqualification from seven to four offenses due to candidates taking advantage of the rules in previous elections.
A candidate must pay a fine of $100 for a second offense and $200 for a third offense, and after a fourth he or she must go before the Elections Court for evaluation.
“They figured if it’s beneficial to their campaign and they can get away with it, then why not do it up to six or seven times,” Sanders said.
“I think the bill is a positive move by the Senate because it will give people who are average at MSU the opportunity to have a fair shot at being a part of the Homecoming court,” Student Association President John David Cole said.
Additionally, the bill provided new regulations for poll workers, including mandating that they check student identification cards and ensure that ballots are completely submitted.
The bill also set a $700 campaign limitation for those running for Student Association offices such as president and vice president, Sanders said.
“We’re just trying to make things easier for those campaigning and for the elections commissioner,” Senator T.J. Harvey said.
The Senate also adopted Resolution 43 encouraging the university to not schedule Fall Break during Homecoming week. Scheduling the break during Homecoming creates a programming dilemma because of students returning from the break, where as a longer Homecoming will foster more school spirit, Sanders said.