In 2000, George W. Bush became the latest presidential candidate to lose the popular majority vote and yet be installed as U.S. President.
While historically, the nation is told the individual vote counts, that promise was questioned in 2000 and challenged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. But at least the results were revealed and published.
And while BYUSA encouraged students to vote in the BYUSA elections Friday, voting tallies of the two teams were never released.
During elections week, a student approached the Honor Code office with an accusation that vice presidential candidate J. Griggs had not observed curfew rules. Although Griggs said he has done nothing immoral, the team of Jason Smith and J. Griggs was asked to resign or be disqualified.
Campaigns are responsible for ?monitoring? each other and reporting infractions or violations of election rules. Infractions are submitted to the elections committee that investigates the reports to make sure the election process is fair. According to the committee, all five candidate pairs had infractions.
Following the campaigns, disqualifications and infractions, the vote is tallied and the results are released; the winner declared, but with a twist. Griggs withdrew from the final elections, automatically disqualifying presidential running mate Smith. Their competitors, Adam Larson and Chrissie Sant were declared winners of the election.
Students who voted in the elections this year deserve praise ? 5,123 students voted this year compared to only 3,212 who voted last year. For years, BYUSA officers have worked to get the students more involved in the voting process, and it appears to have worked this year. We congratulate the voters and the service association on the vote in this year?s contest.
We recognize the decision to name Larson and Sant to the offices, and believe they deserve the students? support. We back them whole-heartedly and look forward to working with them as they lead BYUSA in the coming year.
Despite what some are claiming to be name-calling, tattle telling and mud slinging, BYUSA should release a vote tally to the people. Smith and Griggs won the primary elections by a large margin, and leaves students, and the candidates, questioning what is the final tally. We think they deserve to know if the team continued its success into the finals.
We feel a failure to release the vote totals puts the election in question. While we recognize BYU is a private institution, and that the service organization is developed for the needs of students, failure to tell the voters a total can only appear to be another poor campaign tactic.
To keep faith with the voters, BYUSA election officials should come forward with a statement as to why it is not releasing vote tallies or should release the figures. What?s to be gained from keeping the results secret? Don?t damage the good work of increasing voter turnout by ignoring the voters.