With the election process coming to an end, a final debate, focused on the candidate’s qualifications and platforms, took place Thursday, Mar. 9, 2006, in 3380 WSC between the two candidate pairs who remain after the disqualification of one team in the preliminaries.

The Jason Linford and John Romney team was disqualified before the conclusion of the preliminaries Wednesday night, Mar. 8, 2006. The results were scheduled to be announced at 5:30 p.m. but, because of concerns in the Linford/Romney campaign, were not announced until around 9 p.m.

The Mike Maughan and Chris Giovarelli teams advanced to the final round of the BYUSA elections after Linford and Romney were disqualified for violation of campaign finance rules.

The votes for Linford and Romney accounted for 36 percent of those cast by students during the preliminary round and would have placed them ahead of the other teams had they not been disqualified, said Carri Jenkins, BYU spokeswoman. The votes for the Giovarelli team totaled 33 percent while those for the Maughan team totaled 30 percent.

Jenkins said the BYUSA Elections Committee, made up of nine students and one advisor, met shortly before the scheduled announcement of the preliminary results to review the matter of a possible violation. The decision of this committee was appealed and sent to the Appeals Committee, which consists of two full time administrators and one student, who upheld the original decision.

At the debate Thursday, the remaining candidates once again presented themselves and their platforms to an audience consisting, for the most part, of Student Advisory Council members or those working on one of the campaign teams. Current BYUSA President Adam Larson conducted the session and presented the questions which were gathered from students by BYUSA in collaboration with The Daily Universe.

One question, stemming from the belief that BYUSA doesn’t have an influential status, asked the candidates how they could put forth change in a private university. Both teams said change is possible for various reasons and proposed what is needed to make those changes happen.

Presidential candidate Mike Maughan said it’s necessary to be persistent and maintain positive relationships with those you work with, while vice president candidate Tristan Leavitt said change “comes from getting a good idea, talking to the right people and putting in the time.”

The candidates then explained the topics on their platforms and how these things are to be accomplished. Both teams emphasized their work with various administrators. For Maughan that includes working with the dean of Health of Human Performances, to “get into the weight rooms,” while, for the Giovarelli team, it includes working with the administrator of the Office of Information Technology as well as the senior librarian at the Harold B. Lee Library.

As a concluding question the candidates were asked to imagine all 30,000 BYU students were in the room and to say why those students should vote for them. Giovarelli addressed the concern that all the candidates were the same and encourage students to look at the very different platforms they are running on.

“You need to feel you, as a student, can make an informed decision,” Giovarelli said.

Voting for the final round of the BYUSA elections will continue until 5 p.m. Friday, Mar. 10, 2006. The results are scheduled to be announced in the WSC Terrace shortly after.



Copyright Brigham Young University 10 Mar 2006