The Indiana Student Government Election Commission released the preliminary total number of votes Friday after a controversial election resulting in Elevate’s victory and Inspire’s disqualification. Vote totals show Inspire would have won if the ticket had not been disqualified.
The Inspire campaign received 3,590 votes, the Elevate ticket had 2,699 votes and Legacy had 1,772 votes, according to the IUSG Election Commission.
The commission announced Elevate as the preliminary winner Tuesday night.
Inspire was disqualified Tuesday after the commission found the campaign responsible for two election violations. The first violation involved collecting more than 10,000 peoples’ contact information from a petition and messaging them without a clear way to opt-out of further communication. The IUSG bylaws state any violation impacting more than 5,000 voters results in automatic disqualification.
In a statement to the Indiana Daily Student, Inspire said it plans to appeal the IUSG Election Commission’s decision to the IUSG Supreme Court.
The IUSG Supreme Court is responsible for certifying the votes, but there are still four outstanding complaints to be dealt with before this year’s votes can be certified. The IUSG Election Commission said Friday it is investigating one complaint against Inspire, one complaint against Elevate and two complaints against Legacy.
The commission said it plans to release the rulings this weekend and the votes will be sent to the court for certification after.
