I.  Duties 

Section 1.       

The Student Senate shall supervise elections of the Student Association. 

Section 2.

The Student Senate shall appoint an Election Commission composed of six Student Association members.  This Commission shall be considered a separate committee from the Student Senate, and one Student Association member shall be designated the Election Commissioner by the Student Senate.  It will be the Commission’s duty to administer, interpret, and enforce this code, insure adequate publicity for Student Association elections, provide every candidate with a copy of this code, conduct a drawing for ballot positions, print ballots and/or insure that election machines are in proper working order, prepare absentee ballots, approve credentials of all candidates and votes, provide for public speeches, provide education in the use of voting machines, provide election officials to staff the polls, and tabulate and publish election results.  No member of the Election Commission may tabulate votes in a race in which he/she is the candidate.  The outgoing Election Commission shall have a formal transition meeting with the new Election Commission to discuss the election code, procedures, and duties. 

Section 3.

The Election Commission shall serve as an advisory board for any Student Association Organization who desires assistance with an election.  The organization, through a written request, shall contact the Commission for consultation.  Upon receiving the request, the Commission shall consult the organization in any of its defined capacities.

II. Elections

Section 1.

The Spring General Election for Student Senate shall be held the second Tuesday before Spring Break.  The Spring General Election for Social Committee and Multicultural Development Committee shall be held the third Tuesday after Spring Break; the new Senate shall convene on the first Tuesday before Spring Break.  The Fall New Student Election shall be held the third Tuesday after classes begin fall semester.  Election to fill vacancies shall be held within three weeks of an effective resignation, unless the Student Senate votes by majority that the position is left vacant until a more appropriate time.  The Student Senate may alter these dates if any of them should prove unworkable.  All election shall be held between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. in one place designated by the Election Commission.

Section 2.

The Spring General Election for Student Senate shall include the election of one Student Representative on the Council of Academic Policy, one Senator from each residence hall, one true off-campus senator, one Hendrix apartments senator, one houses senator, one senator from each academic class, a vice- president, and a president.  The Spring General Elections for Social Committee and Multicultural Development Committee shall include the election of one committee member from each residence hall, one Off-campus committee member, one Hendrix apartments committee member, one Houses committee member, and one member representing the sophomore, junior, and senior classes.  The fall freshmen election shall include the election of one Freshman Class Senator, Freshman Social Committee member, and one Freshman Multicultural Development Committee member.  The following chart details for which positions eligible voters may vote:

Section 3.

The Election Commission will have the responsibility of serving as election officials for all elections.  The Election Commissioner shall declare his/her candidacy for any race no less than one (1) week before filing opens.  The Election Commissioner shall inform the Senate of his/her intentions at that time, and an interim Election Commissioner shall then be appointed.  The Student Senate shall serve as the first source for election officials.  There shall be at least two election officials at the polls at all times during any election.  Election officials may not display campaign materials or engage in campaigning while at the polling booth. 

Section 4.

Elections may be by paper ballot, voting machine, or computer.  Machines and ballot boxes must be securely fastened by a lock during any election.  The name of each voter shall be recorded by signature upon casting his/her ballot, the voter’s eligibility shall be determined at that time by confirming current student status and place of residency.  All ballots shall be counted in the presence of at least two members of the Election Commission and results are certified upon signature of at least two Election Commission members.  Results of the elections shall be posted on the Student Senate’s Bulletin board in the Campus Center once the results have been certified.

Section 5.

Ballots violating Part III, Section 2 of this code or having no one candidate clearly marked as a choice will be considered invalid and will not be counted in the total number of votes cast in an election.  All Student Association elections shall use a rank voting system, wherein each member of the Association may rank the candidates numerically in the order of their preference.  Members of the Association are not required to rank every candidate but may do so. Votes will then be tallied according to the highest preference of each voter. In the event that no candidate receives a majority of the votes, the votes for the candidate who receives the least number of votes shall then be redistributed to the next choice on each ballot. This process shall be repeated until one candidate receives a majority of the votes. Should all of the ranked choices of a voter be eliminated in this process, said voter will no longer be considered a member of the voter pool.  If a tie vote shall occur, the candidates and/or their representatives shall report to the Election Commission wherein a coin toss shall break the tie.

III. Eligibility

Section 1.

Students must be listed as a current, full-time, or part-time student of Hendrix College to attain voter eligibility.  All voters who are currently enrolled for classes on the Hendrix College campus (Academic Policy Representative excluded), have at least one full academic year remaining as a recognized student at Hendrix College, and have a grade point average of at least a 2.00 are certified to run for any office of the Student Association. 

• Living Unit Representative:  Students wishing to run for a living unit representative must currently residence in that unit and in the unit throughout his/her tenure in office.

• Class Senator:  Class ranking shall be based on the number of college credits accumulated at the completion of the previous fall semester.  If, due to the transition from trimester to semester or to obtaining credits elsewhere, class standing is different from the credit-based standing, the candidate may choose which standing to be used to determine eligibility:
  • 0 – 6.99 credits:  Sophomore Class Senator eligibility
  • 7.00 – 14.99 credits:  Junior Class Senator eligibility
  • 15 – 24.99 credits:  Senior Class Senator eligibility 

Section 2.

To be placed on the ballot a candidate must file a written statement of intent with the Election Commission during the filing period.  Upon receiving the letter of intent the Election Commission shall notify the candidate that he/she must attend the informational meeting as outlined in Article IV, Section 1 of the Election Code, make prior arrangements with the Election Commissioner to send a representative, or the candidate’s name will not appear on the ballot.  The filing period shall be at least one week in length and begin at least two weeks prior to the elections.  The Election Commissioner shall post the names of all candidates in a public place as soon as the candidate has been declared eligible. 

Section 3.

Write-in candidates are permitted in all elections.  In order for a write-in ballot to be valid, the write-in candidate must be an eligible voter, and the candidate’s first and last names must be spelled correctly and written legibly on the ballot.  If a write-in candidate receives the majority vote and wins an election, the candidate must file a written statement of acceptance with the Election Commissioner by noon of the day following the election to be officially declared the winner. 

Section 4.

Any candidate may withdraw from a race, for any reason, if he/she files a written statement with the Election Commission forty-eight hours prior to the election.  Any candidate who fails to comply with this rule will be considered a candidate regardless of whether he/she runs an organized campaign. 

Section 5.

Students may not run for two Student Association positions concurrently.  Students may not hold two elected positions of the Student Association concurrently with the following exceptions:  if the New Student Senator, New Student Social Committee Representative, and/or New Student Multicultural Development Committee Representative runs for and is elected to a position during the Spring Term General Election, he/she will hold the new position and continue to serve his/her New Student position until the conclusion of the next fall New Student Election. 

Section 6.

A candidate for Senate President will include the names of his/her cabinet nominees in the statement of intent to run, which will be posted as outlined in Article III, Section 1 of the Election Code.  Presidential candidates are encouraged to use their cabinet nominees as a part of their campaign platform.  Cabinet nominees may be involved in the campaign of a candidate; however, all campaign regulations are expected to be followed by the nominees and candidate.  A candidate will be held responsible for the actions of his/her cabinet.  After being elected, the Presidential cabinet shall be approved by the Senate in the first meeting following the certification of the election. 

IV. Campaigning 

Section 1.

An information meeting for all candidates will be held at a time to be determined by the Commission on the day that filing closes.  Attendance by candidates is required unless previous arrangements for a representative to be present have been made with the Election Commissioner.  The Election Commission will provide the candidates with a copy of the Election Code, verbally inform the candidates of the campaigning rules and where the candidates can find the Constitution of the Student Association, and allow candidates to draw for ballot positions.  The Election Commission will also be responsible for informing candidates about election procedures, especially the role of publicity and candidate responsibility for election information to the general student body.  Any candidate who does not attend the meting without previous arrangements having been made with the Election Commissioner shall have his/her name removed from the ballot.  No campaigning may occur until after the informational meeting. 

Section 2.

Candidates may solicit votes through the distribution of literature, personal contact, and display of materials.  Candidates may display materials only in the following places:  the Campus Center (Burrow), the Post Office area, the cafeteria’s sun-porch in Hulen Hall, and each of the Residence Halls.  No materials may be displayed in or on any other building or on the campus grounds, including landscape, or distributed through electronic student association publication or on KHDX radio station.  Candidates must remove all of their campaign materials within twenty-four hours of election certification.  Any campaign materials, ideas, or events must be approved prior to distribution by the Election Commission.  Any candidate found in violation will be subject to review and possible elimination from the election.  In all elections, candidates will be limited to:

• Two banners (combined size not to exceed 90 square feet),
• Twelve signs (not exceeding standard poster size of 36 inches by 36 inches),
• Two mailings (i.e. distribution of materials through the mail or under the doors in residence halls), these shall be paper mailings only or will be classified as a “personalized campaign handout,”
• Two types of personalized handouts (i.e. stickers, favors, etc.).  The total number of personalized handouts shall not exceed 75% of the enrolled students in the candidate’s area of election. (This restriction will include and encompass any type of handout not specifically state in the above three restrictions.)

And all scheduled events are subject to approval of Election Commission before being held. 

Section 3.

If it is called to the attention of the Election Commission that a candidate has exceeded the number of signs or banners to be posted, two members of the Election Commission who are not candidates in the race must first confirm the report.  If the report is true the candidate at fault must be notified and acknowledge in writing that he/she was notified.  The candidate at fault must then remove the posting within a time set by the Election Commission or the next five business hours.  The Election Commission shall insure that this is done.  Noncompliance is grounds for disqualification.  All campaign advertising shall adhere to the Standards of Conduct as laid out by Hendrix College.  Failure to adhere to these will result in the same action taken for exceeding the number of campaign materials described above.

No campaigning or campaign materials shall be allowed in polling area during an election (including the doors leading into the polling area); election officials shall be responsible for removing such materials at the time opening the polls if they remain in the area.  A candidate will be allowed in the polling area only to cast his/her ballot.  The polling area shall be defined as the area within a fifty-foot radius of the polls.

Section 4.

An arena for public speeches will be made available to all official candidates for Class Senators, Class Social Committee Representatives, Class Multicultural Development Committee Representatives, Senate Vice-President, Senate President, Student Representative on the Council of Academic Policy, Freshman Senator, and Freshman Social Committee Representative, Freshman Multicultural Development Committee Representative.  Speaking order at such arenas shall be reverse order of ballot position.  Speeches for other Social Committee positions may be requested by the Election Commission or the incumbent Senate, in which case a public arena will be arranged by the Election Commission.

Section 5.

Prior to the speeches held for the Spring General election, Senate shall fund and sponsor an event to allow students the opportunity to get to know the candidates.  Possible ideas include barbeque, live music, or other festive activities.  Each candidate will be invited and encouraged to attend the event but there will be not requirement stating every candidate must attend.  There will be no official campaigning done on the stage or in the serving lines.  If the event is seen to officially favor any specific candidate by the discretion of the Election Commission, proper action will be taken to insure an unbiased event.  Every candidate will be given equal opportunity during the event and will only serve as precursor for the speeches to follow.

Section 6.

If it is proven that illegal campaigning was done by someone not associated with the candidate in question, then the campaigning material will simply be removed and a retraction published by the Election Commission.  This retraction will be distributed by electronic mail and any further questions will be addressed by the Commission.

V.  Absentee Voting

Section 1.

Absentee ballots may be obtained by written request to the Election Commissioner by an eligible voter between the opening of the campaigning period and 5:00 p.m. on the day before the election.  Absentee ballots must be filed with the Election Commissioner before 9:00 a.m. on the day of the elections at which time the Election Commissioner shall remove the names of the absentee voters from the list of qualified voters. 

VI. Election Contestment

Section 1.

Any candidate or election official may contest an election by filing a written statement of contentment with the Election Commissioner within eighteen hours following certification of the election results.  Proper grounds for upholding a contentment shall be failure to comply or to require compliance by any candidate or election official with the Student Association Constitution or Election Code.  The Election Commission shall have until midnight of the day following the election to either deny the contentment or declare a new election to be held.  The entire Election Commission shall be present to vote with the following exceptions:  a member of the Election Commission is a candidate in the race in question, or prior arrangements have been made with the Election Commission.  The Election Commissioner shall break any ties.  If a new election is held, only original and legitimate candidates shall be included on the ballot.  The Election Commission may decide to omit an original candidate from the ballot in the new election if it decides that candidate’s campaign is illegitimate.

Section 2.

All involved candidates shall be personally informed of the Election Commission’s decision.  Any candidate or election official who is dissatisfied with the Election Commission’s decision may appeal to the Student Senate by filing a written statement of appeal with the Election Commissioner within one hour of knowledge of the Election Commission’s decision.  The full Senate shall then have twenty-four hours to make a decision to appeal.

VII. Amendments and Revisions

Section 1.

This election code may be amended or revised by majority vote of the Student Senate.

As revised April 24, 2001.  BWH

As revised October 5, 2002.  PPW

As revised September 9, 2003. DC

As revised March 28, 2005.  RWM