The NC State Student Body President Spring Election came to a close, with Knox Trask and Hubbard Stack winning Student Body President and Vice President, respectively. The ticket included candidates Zach Eddinger & Alexander Rivas, Lance Williams & Chloe Webster and Taquan Dewberry & Ava Butler.
The Williams-Webster campaign withdrew and the Dewberry-Butler campaign was disqualified following two violation cases. They were still on the ballot, as it was finalized prior to the rulings.
On March 9, the Dewberry-Butler campaign filed a petition with Student Government Chief Justice Colin Carmichael, as a Special Appeal of BOE-105-S4 valid according to SBS §6-3.8, which was granted the same day. The Special Review Committee (SRC), a group appointed to hold review hearings of board acts and decisions, met Mar. 12, upholding the disqualification for the violation of Bribery Rule §4-1.7(e) (Chapter 4, Article 1, Rule 7, Subsection (e)) of the Elections Handbook in the SRC-105-01 decision.
The rule says that bribes include giveaways, raffles or food items. Only items under $1.00 value (e.g., stickers) are permitted. This is to prevent influencing voters. The handbook states that verified voter bribery results in immediate disqualification.
The SRC found they violated the bribery rule due to the association of an event hosted by The HUB Raleigh, “Sun’s Out Buns Out,” with Dewberry-Butler’s “Doing Better BBQ.”
The ruling states, “While the campaign may have not handled the food directly, it is evident that in advertising the event as the ‘Doing Better BBQ’ and clearly promoting food, not only in verbiage, but as the basis of the graphic design, in combination with the reasonability test previously established, the Dewberry-Butler campaign violated the aforementioned clause. Food items may not be used to influence voters.”
Trask-Stack won with a voter percentage of 68.90% and Eddinger-Rivas lost with a voter percentage of 31.10%. This vote does not include those who voted for Dewberry-Butler; those were omitted in accordance with the Special Review Committee’s order. Notably, other spring election results included both the voter percentage and the number of votes.
In an email correspondence, the Nubian Message asked for a comment on the nullified votes of students who feel their votes were not heard or may not have known of their elimination.
Joseph Attancucci, the chair of the board of elections, stated, “The disqualification was publicly communicated through several channels during the election period. Information about the decision appeared in the Candidate Bio Packet and on the Elections webpage, and the Dewberry-Butler campaign also publicly acknowledged the disqualification on its own social media platforms. Students therefore had multiple opportunities to become aware of the status of the ticket prior to casting their ballots.” This was not directly disclosed on the ballot.
In an email correspondence, the Nubian Message asked for the comment of Dewberry-Butler on their reaction to the election results. Dewberry said he was disappointed for his voters.
“What we did feel was disappointment — not primarily for ourselves, but for the more than 2,000 students who cast their votes for our campaign in this election and believed in the vision our campaign presented. Those students showed up, engaged with the process, and supported a campaign they cared about. With this decision, their voices were removed from the outcome of this race. Student Government often speaks about representing the student body, but moments like this raise serious questions about whether that commitment is truly being honored.”
Only the Board of Elections Chair, commissioners and the Student Government Advisor know the final vote totals. The Board of Elections does not release raw vote totals for all disqualified candidates. Results were not released for any candidate of the Student Body President race. Dewberry-Butler said they were provided numbers by a couple sources, estimating around 2030 votes for them, 1400 votes for Trask-Stack and 500 votes for Eddinger-Rivas. The Nubian Message, however, cannot independently verify this claim. Only the Board of Elections Chair and comissioners and the Student Government Advisor know the final vote totals.
In addition to being disqualified from the race, Dewberry-Butler are not able to hold office.
The ruling of SRC-105-01 states, “As such, Taquan Dewberry and Ava Butler are ineligible to hold an elected office position, appointed or running in a General Election, within the NC State Student Government for the entirety of their time as NC State students.”
The Chief Justice, in his statement to student media and the student body, stated this will take effect “ … at the beginning of the 106th Session of Student Government. Since they were eligible to be elected or appointed to their elected offices prior to the disqualification, it does not affect their current positions.”
Despite this, Dewberry and Butler plan on “finishing the semester strong and continuing to support the communities and students who believed in what we were trying to build.”
