Opinion
 

Staff Editorial

                            Bridget Brown    Matthew Dulin 
Ray Hafner                  Geronimo Rodriguez                Lisa Street

Time's up

With a little more than six weeks to go before the Student Government Association's general election must be completed, the SGA Senate has yet to appoint commissioners to oversee the election.

Internal Affairs Committee Chairwoman Krystal Wormly, who oversees the appointments, said she didn't know what the new SGA Election Code requires of applicants to the commission. That confusion caused major setbacks in appointing commissioners, she said. But as long as the commission is appointed before the election, Wormly said, everything will be fine.

Well, that's not exactly true.

Wormly apparently did not realize that the new Election Code -- which was approved in the fall -- set an Oct. 15 deadline for appointing commissioners. Now it's almost February, and although applications have been received, the appointments have not been made.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on setting up what's actually a rather complex election process. It must be wrapped up by March 15, the first day of Spring Break, meaning the election should take place far enough in advance of the break not to leave any loose ends dangling for a week.

Wormly has reported that she's tabbed one solid applicant and two whom the Senate should review. So at least two applicants could have to wait until the next Senate meeting -- two weeks away -- for appointment.

Why don't the SGA leaders speed up the process? They can't. If President Dawona Miller or Vice President Jon Quintanilla steps in, they risk looking like they are trying to influence the election.

That means the onus is squarely on the senators who should be lining up the Election Commission appointments. The commissioners need to be appointed as quickly as possible, with appropriate consideration to locate the best possible applicants, so a fair and properly run election can take place.