The 2018 Missouri Students Association presidential election filing deadline was moved from Feb. 16 to March 1 following an insufficient number of student signatures for potential candidates.
“The bylaws and handbook clearly state that the [Board of Elections Commissioners] must receive 500 student signatures for a slate to be on the ballot,” BEC chair Joseph Sell said. “For that reason, I made the decision to push back the filing date.”
MSA received only one slate before the previous filing date.
The campaigning period for presidential candidates will begin March 5, and both presidential and senatorial elections will be held on March 20.
The election date was moved from March 6 following the resignation of former senate speaker Hunter Windholz and former BEC chair Jessica Dennis.
A new handbook was passed in full senate Feb. 7 following the appointment of the new BEC chair.
The original handbook that was proposed would have placed a cap of $1,000 on campaign spending. However, it was removed after debate in senate because MSA members received a different version of the handbook prior to the last full senate meeting.
“I’m honestly not sure if [not having the spending cap] will have an impact because we haven’t had one previously,” said Mathew Swan, Operations Committee chair. “We’re just kind of going with the status quo instead of doing something new.”
The spending cap was proposed by Dennis prior to her resignation in an effort to encourage more students to participate in the MSA election.
“The argument for the spending cap was that it would make the election more accessible and create a way to ensure that all slates are on an equal playing field,” said Tim Davis, Campus and Community Relations Committee chair. “I disagreed with this argument, not necessarily the spending cap.”
Instead of the campaign spending cap, MSA is working to make elections more accessible by having more open discussions in senate.
“We can have a discussion about going through what policies we have during elections and being realistic about how we can respect the concerns about having a spending cap because it is so difficult to enforce,” Swan said.
_Edited by Skyler Rossi | srossi@themaneater.com_