On Tuesday, Feb. 25, Macalester College Student Government (MCSG) Election Procedures Commission (EPC) announced that Jonah Daniels ’27 and Corinne Byus ’26 had won their seats as sophomore class representative and junior class representative, respectively, in the second special election of the semester.
Although two candidates filed for junior class representative originally, the EPC announced via email on Wednesday, Feb. 19, that one candidate’s name had been removed from the ballot in response to violations of MCSG’s Election Code, which marks the second election this semester featuring only one name on the ballot for vacant positions.
The sophomore class representative election remained uncontested with Daniels receiving 77 percent of the 53 votes cast. In contrast, the junior class representative election, which became contested due to a write-in candidate receiving 15.3 percent of the votes, saw more voter engagement, with Byus claiming 79.4 percent of the 131 votes.
EPC’s process of evaluating and responding to Election Code violations prolonged the duration of the election, which opened for filing on Feb. 7, by more than two weeks. In the time between when MCSG candidates filed and ballots were slated to be sent out, MCSG President Joel Sadofsky ’25, who chairs EPC as a non-voting member, received news of three bylaw violations.
The first violation, campaigning before the Candidate’s Meeting, occurred on Monday, Feb. 10, and did not lead to formal sanctions from EPC. Sadofsky explained that, although they were notified informally of the violations, no one submitted a formal complaint, and the candidate “ quickly replied and said that they put the posters down.”
The second two Election Code violations broke the same item of the Election Code: Section IV Item six prohibits candidates from seeking endorsements from staff and faculty members. EPC’s email was sent to the student body announcing that the candidate had been removed from the ballot as a sanction. While this sanction prevents the individual from appearing on the ballot, it does not prevent them from running as a write-in candidate.
“[The Election Code is] not a hard-to-read document,” Sadofsky said. “I spent hours and hours of last semester amending it to make it clearer and easier to read. So, at this point, if somebody doesn’t understand the rules that were broken, I think that’s their own lack of care and attention.”
In addition to linking the Election Code in MCSG’s original email announcing the second special election, and discussing the Election Code during the candidates meeting, Sadofsky also reiterated the importance of thoroughly reading election code to the candidate in an email following each violation. Although the candidate deleted the initial endorsement post after being contacted by Sadofsky on Friday, Feb. 14, they posted another endorsement on Sunday, Feb. 16, to social media. Before evaluating the violations with EPC, which is composed of current seniors on MCSG, Sadofsky confirmed the identities of the staff who gave endorsements with Athletic Director Donnie Brooks.
In an effort to address ongoing issues of voter fatigue and lack of engagement with MCSG elections, MCSG recently passed the Special Election Amendment proposed by sophomore class representative AnLian Krishnamurthy ’27 during their Feb. 20 weekly Legislative Body (LB) meeting. This amendment altered MCSG’s Bylaws and their Election Code to allow the President to appoint individual students to vacant positions, instead of holding a special election. This decision is subject to the approval of two-thirds of the LB, and could also be overturned by an EPC vote.
“If this bill had been passed before the semester, I would have encouraged EPC to vote to still hold the special election for FAC [Financial Affairs Committee] Chair,” Sadofsky said. “I believe that’s a very consequential position, and who is FAC Chair in the spring semester can have a really significant effect on student org budgeting within the entire semester and next year. I would not have held a follow up special election to elect to hold an… uncontested election for sophomore class rep and a contested but only one person on the ballot election for junior rep. I would have determined that was a complete waste of time.”
Jonah Daniels ’27 was inspired to run for sophomore class representative due to the vacancies. He also wanted to take the opportunity to learn more about the inner workings of MCSG and the ways in which they interact with the Macalester community. Daniels brings experience from work at the Sustainability Office, and the outreach center at Macalester, as well as a former member of the debate team on campus, to his new role in MCSG.
In addition to his role as sophomore class representative, Daniels will join the Communications and Engagement Committee (CEC).
“Recently, during the special election, the engagement from the student body was pretty low, which means there is some work that needs to be done, and I am excited to take on this challenge,” Daniels wrote in an email to The Mac Weekly.
