UNC Mirror

Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Ryan Joy Senior economic major Charles Miles right, and junior physics major Josh Veillon, left, shake hands at the announcement of the preliminary results of the SRC elections. Both Miles and Veillon won their respective positions.

The preliminary results for the 2008 Student Representative Council elections were announced Thursday, but the winners will not be verified until next week.

Junior English major and elections commissioner Audrey Porter said she hoped to be relieved by the time candidates were announced, but due to an unusually large number of grievances and extenuating circumstances, there is much work to be done.

"We have never had this much controversy before," Porter said.

The controversy Porter refers to is the amount of grievances filed against candidates. The names of the candidates who received grievances and how many were filed were not released. Porter said no other year has had as many filed like this year.

Grievances can be filed against a candidate or the election as a whole. They serve to claim that some aspect of a person's campaign or of the election is not in accordance with the bylaws established by SRC.

Depending on the severity and authenticity of the claim, a grievance has the capability of changing a vote count and even altering the election results.

"There were numerous grievances," Porter said.

Senior economics major Charles Miles, the preliminary winner for the SRC presidential race, said he is not worried about his vote count.

"I think I ran a really clean campaign," Miles said. "I am not worried about results changing."

Despite the work ahead of her, Porter said she was happy that more students cast their votes this year.

"We increased by a little over 300 voters," Porter said.

Overall, 2,542 students cast votes for candidates in this year's election.

Students who voted were offered an incentive - a $200 scholarship for books at the University Center's Barnes and Noble bookstore

Margaret Mae Dias was the winner of the scholarship, although she could not be present for the announcement.

The certification announcement of Thursday's preliminary results was originally going to be verified on Monday. However, due to the controversial circumstances, final announcements may be delayed a few days to maintain a fair and accurate outcome.

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