Contestments and crybabies

What a joke. That's about the best description I can come up with for what exactly IU Student Association has become. For the 25th year in a row -- or whatever the number is at -- the election is being contested. The political jargon is flying in the paper while students jeer at the mockery of a student government representing them.\nI thought all of the usual drama would be non-existent this year. Unlike years past, IUSA now releases the elections results immediately after the votes are counted. With this new rule in place, you'd think there would be no motivation for a distant-loser party to file its requisite allotment of complaints and contestments. Well, I guess I got that one wrong. Fusion party filed a complaint in an attempt to get Big Red disqualified from the elections -- too bad. If this happens, Fusion still only becomes the bridesmaid. More ridiculous is the Hoosier Party, which filed two complaints. Hoosier Party received 296 votes out of a possible 9,067 and finished last in the election. Note to Hoosier Party: to win, you needed to file complaints against all three tickets that beat you, not just two of them. \nOf course, nothing can top what happened the year I ran for vice president as part of Kirkwood. After the other two tickets failed to get my ticket DQed by the Elections Commission, one of them obtained the elections results illegally (in those days, no one knew the results until the legal process was done). After discovering it finished third, the ticket decided it would appeal to the Supreme Court to get us tossed. Its logic made perfect sense in hindsight -- if we were disqualified there would be a run-off election to decide the winner. Nothing like the old file-a-complaint-and-redo-the-entire-election move. Maybe, that's what Hoosier Party is planning to do.\nThis year's complaints are even more obtuse than in years past. Big Red has apparently bought too many T-shirts? My ticket was accused of University Information Technology Services violations and voter fraud! Oops, I forgot to mention Big Red also incorrectly valued some cup holders and door hangers. Crimson's VP candidate, Jesse Laffen, was quoted as saying these violations changed the way students voted. Really, Jesse? I sent out 17,800 e-mails during my election night and used 300-plus Greek pledges as campaign staff. These things changed the way students voted. If my ticket's actions were deemed illegal, I would have thrown myself out of the election. Likewise, I believe the only time a ticket should be thrown out is when it is found to have violated a rule and that violation impacted the way students voted. Crimson and Fusion, you lost, and the T-shirts and cup holders had nothing to do with it. Oops, I forgot those hangers again. \nOne thing no one seems to mention is all the incest in IUSA. Not in a literal sense of course, but it is a major problem. Crimson appointed the entire Elections Commission and voted in the new Elections Code, meaning it argued its complaint based on a code it wrote to a panel it chose. Big Red did have a secret weapon up its sleeve -- Jeff Wuslich, one of the legal consuls for Big Red. Jeff had Derek Molter, the current Election Commissioner, argue on his behalf two years ago in a previous election dispute. So much for attorney-client privilege in IUSA. Naturally, nothing can top the living arrangements of the VP candidates for Crimson and Big Red: Angel Rivera and Jesse Laffen are roommates.\nHere is a little advice to whoever runs next year: keep it clean, but more importantly, don't complain about it after it's over. The election should be decided by the votes, not commissions and contestments.