The Elevate campaign won the election for the next IU Student Government president and vice president, according to preliminary results released by the IUSG Election Commission Tuesday night. The Inspire campaign was disqualified Tuesday night.
The Elevate ticket features preliminary president Ky Freeman and vice president Madeline Dederichs, who are both juniors.
Voting began Thursday morning and ended 10 p.m. Friday, but the IUSG Election Commission did not release results until Tuesday due to an unprecedented 23 total election complaints.
The IUSG Supreme Court certifies the election. IUSG Election Commission co-Chair Lucy Newell said it’s unlikely the court will certify the results immediately because of the three outstanding complaints against the remaining tickets.
The IUSG Election Commission accepted four complaints against the Inspire campaign, one complaint against the Elevate campaign and two complaints against the Legacy campaign, the commission said in an Instagram direct message. All accepted complaints will be investigated by the IUSG Election Commission, who will then require a two-thirds majority vote to find a ticket responsible for an election violation.
The IUSG Election Commission found the Inspire campaign responsible for two election violations as of Tuesday. The two violations add up to 10 or more points deducted. Each election violation deducts a certain amount of points from a ticket, and a ticket may lose 10 points before being disqualified.
In a statement to the Indiana Daily Student, the Inspire campaign said it feels confident it won the election by a significant margin, and the campaign plans to appeal the IUSG Election Commission’s decision to the IUSG Supreme Court.
“Elections should be decided on votes, not points,” Inspire said in a statement to the IDS. “We remain confident that on April 15 Dorynn Mentor and Carling Louden will be inaugurated as the next Student Body President and Vice President.”
In a statement to the IDS, Elevate said it is grateful for the students and organizations that have supported their campaign over the past month.
“We are honored to have the opportunity to, in turn, uplift all of you this coming year as well,” the statement said.
The campaign said it is looking forward to the election results being certified but that their advocacy will continue whatever the outcome.
This story has been updated with a statement from the Elevate campaign.
