The Missouri Students Association Board of Elections Commissioners announced in a March 2 decision that it is “concerned” by the Ready to Roar slate’s allegations that the BEC unconstitutionally allowed the Renew Mizzou slate to file their candidacy.
Ready to Roar presidential candidate Will Shafer and vice presidential candidate Key Avingston-Banks said the extension of the filing date was unconstitutional in a video originally posted Feb. 28 on Shafer’s personal Instagram account.
“Thirty minutes before the deadline, and after receiving our information, the BEC … decided to extend a week,” said Shafer.
Avingston-Banks added that they found this extension “whole-heartedly unconstitutional.”
The BEC expressed concern over the language used in the video. It said the allegations did not warrant election expulsion, but suggested Ready to Roar provide evidence for their claims.
“Continuing this language without [providing evidence] may cross into what the BEC considers libel,” it stated.
The Election Code of the Missouri Students Association states that “The Presidential Filing Date shall be from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM on the first Tuesday in February,” which was Feb. 2 this year. On Feb. 2, the BEC released a decision extending the filing deadline to Feb. 9. The decision also lowered the necessary amount of signatures for a slate to file from 500 to 300 because of COVID-19 concerns, a response to a request from Ready to Roar’s platform.
Interim BEC Chair and MSA Student Court Chief Justice Brendan Durbin wrote that BEC was extending the deadline to allow a competitive election, as Ready to Roar was the only slate that had filed by the original deadline.
“In the interest of further facilitating a competitive election process and ensuring equity between any potential slates wanting to take advantage of the lowered signature requirements, the BEC authorizes an extension to the filing period of one week,” Durbin wrote. “…All other dates specified by the Election Code remain unchanged.”
In an email, Durbin wrote that BEC confirmed Ready to Roar filing as of 5 p.m. on Feb. 9. Avingston-Banks said Ready to Roar filed the morning of Feb. 2. Durbin added that Renew Mizzou was nine signatures short of the threshold at the time of the deadline and that BEC granted them 48 hours to collect the remaining signatures. Durbin wrote that BEC confirmed Renew Mizzou’s filing at 10:54 a.m. on Feb. 10.
Avingston-Banks said the decision was unconstitutional because the BEC does not have the authority to amend the Election Code. This power rests with the MSA Senate, as stated in Section 1.3 of the Election Code. Avingston-Banks said he believes MSA could only change the filing date by an amendment.
In response to Ready to Roar’s allegations, Renew Mizzou candidates Landon Brickey and Emily Smith filed a complaint to the BEC on March 1, claiming that Shafer and Avingston-Banks “violated Section 5.9–C. (c), in which Ready to Roar lacked integrity, published a libel and slandered multiple entities.” The BEC wrote in a decision the next day that Ready to Roar was not guilty of libel.
Brickey said Ready to Roar’s allegations drew parallels to former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent. He said Shafer and Avingston-Banks were only making their claims to sabotage Renew Mizzou.
“They’re scared that they’re going to lose,” Brickey said. “If they actually wanted to serve the students, they would have mentioned that when we enrolled. They wouldn’t mention it the night before the election or the day of the election.”
Avingston-Banks said regardless of his opinion on whether Renew Mizzou should remain on the ballot, MSA’s election rules should have prohibited their candidacy.
“Other groups within MSA have concerns about only one slate running in the election, and I’m not here to say whether those concerns are valid or not valid,” Avingston-Banks said. “I’m just saying that if I’m speaking as objectively as possible, if we are following the rules to a T, [Renew Mizzou] wouldn’t be here.”
The MSA election is ongoing and will close today, March 3, at 6 p.m. Undergraduate students can cast their vote at vote.missouri.edu.