The Student Council Elections Committee voted last night 8-1 with one abstention not to hold runoff elections after a "discrepancy" was filed by candidate Prince Agarwal, who finished seventh in last week's College Representative election.
The runoff election would have been held between sixth place finisher Kelly Harris and Agarwal, said Brock Jolly, vice president for administration and head of College elections. The top six candidates won seats on Council.
Agarwal said he probably would not appeal last night's decision. Harris declined to comment.
Elections Committee Chairwoman Nancy Peterson said the discrepancy includes three issues that Agarwal said caused him to lose votes, but declined to describe what those issues were.
According to Jolly, Agarwal claims the final line from his biography at the voting booth was missing, and that Harris had committed some campaign "violations."
Agarwal said another one of these violations involved "illegal chalking."
Despite the alleged violations, Jolly and Student Council President Taz Turner said they believe the elections ran smoothly.
"There may have been some reason to look into Kelly Harris' postering violations," Turner said. But "I think the claim didn't seem to be substantial."
Agarwal "was not the only one that lost -- 17 other people lost," he said. "He would need the support of other candidates [to] add some weight to his claim."
If the 15-member Committee had approved Agarwal's discrepancy claim, the Rules and Ethics Committee then would have voted on whether or not to hold a runoff, he added.
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