Prairie View A&M University Student Government Association announced the results of the presidential and vice presidential elections Tuesday evening naming Demario Lowe president with 1,073 votes, Justin Warren vice president with 1,172 votes, and Ivan Butler comptroller with 1,026 votes.
Immediately after their posting, the president and vice president election results were contested by candidates Jarrick Brown and Priscilla Barbour.
On the day of the election, Brown, Barbour and current student government president Harrison Blair received information concerning cheating. According to allegations contained in emails and photos they received, students were obtaining others log in information to vote for them and were illegally campaigning in the Willie A. Tempton Sr. Memorial Student Center, University Village and other spots around campus.
Since the election results were contested within the allotted 24 hours of their posting, the SGA judicial board will have a hearing within the next week to decide how to look into the allegations.
The judicial board, which consists of seven members, has several choices for action including allowing the election results to stand, hosting another election or disqualifying the candidates in question.
Until the judicial board has its hearing PVAMU does not have an official 2013-2014 student government president and vice president.
Steven Ransom, director of the Office of Student Engagement, said, “We do not have a final result until we go through the hearing process. Both contesters are able to have three witnesses testify and present their evidence.”
The date for the hearing has not been set yet.
“We need a quorum which is three justices to hold the hearing,” said Ransom. “We hope to schedule a date really soon.”
The election committee was called for a hearing Tuesday afternoon. It was determined that the election process was conducted according to student government laws.
“The election committee did certify the results Tuesday and that is why they were posted, but they were immediately contested so we have to host a hearing according to our laws,” said Ransom.