SBP results further delayed

The release of the student body president election results has been delayed yet again, creating the likelihood that the vote counts won’t be unveiled until next week.

The delay followed an extension granted for the submission of briefs in a lawsuit filed Monday by former speaker of Student Congress Deanna Santoro.

She filed the suit against Andrew Phillips, chairman of the Board of Elections, for interpreting the Student Code in a way that allowed candidate Ian Lee to run for student body president while serving as student body secretary.

Jessica Womack, chief justice of the Student Supreme Court, said the case could not possibly be resolved by Saturday. The parties are now required to submit briefs by Saturday at noon.

Originally, briefs from each party were due to the Student Supreme Court by Thursday at 5 p.m.

Phillips filed a motion to dismiss the student body president case, saying Santoro has no standing to file the lawsuit. Phillips argued in his motion to dismiss it that a student only has legal standing if directly affected by the ruling.

Phillips said in his motion that “the plaintiff has tried to generate standing through her title of ‘Speaker Emeritus,’ adding that the Code does not reference such a position.

Phillips also cited a passage in the code that states the plaintiff must file the suit within 96 hours of the violation.

Womack said the court could only dismiss Santoro’s suit if it held a pre-trial hearing.

The court could also choose to bypass a pre-trial hearing for a trial.

The deadline to submit briefs was also extended to Saturday in the case involving the release of the results for the UCommons referendum to renovate the Student Union.

Adam Horowitz, a member of Student Congress, along with three other students, filed a suit against Phillips and Student Body President Hogan Medlin for allowing the referendum to appear on the ballot, alleging that Union officials used campaign methods that violated election law.

Rick Ingram, a candidate, said he understands the student body’s frustration with the delay.

“At this point, I feel the exact same way,” he said.

Candidate Mary Cooper said the delay has prevented her campaign staff from making future plans.

Lee did not respond to interview requests.

Brooklyn Stephens, another candidate, said waiting for the results is not an issue.

“I’ve been pretty good with the flow of this whole thing,” she said. “So we’ll just wait until the results are released.”

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