Tension and confusion pervaded the atmosphere at Duke Student Government's general body meeting Wednesday night, as some legislators took sides in a heated debate over a proposed amendment to the election bylaw.
After discussing the proposal for over an hour and voting three times, legislators approved a new election system, 26 to 13 - exactly the required two-thirds majority - for the DSG executive elections three weeks from this week.
DSG President Joshua Jean-Baptiste, however, said he plans to veto that amendment.
Sophomore Ryan Kennedy presented the new system, called Instant Runoff Voting, as a change to Executive Vice President Justin Ford's proposed amendment, which would have required the winning presidential candidate to earn a majority or face a runoff against the opponent with the second-most votes.
"Any candidate that is strong enough to pass this test is strong enough to lead this organization," said Ford, who first presented the amendment last month.
However, with no DSG president having ever received a majority in the organization's 10-year history, a runoff would virtually be guaranteed to follow every election. Some students had raised concerns that with voter participation already so low, another election would attract even fewer voters.
Under Kennedy's proposal, students would rank their preference for candidates, and a computer program would determine the winner by redistributing votes to the top vote-getters according to those rankings. A candidate would still require a majority to win, but the computer would bypass the second election.
In the eyes of some members, though, Ford's initial proposal to amend the process for electing a president questioned Jean-Baptiste's authority without addressing a larger issue of internal disagreement among executive committee members.
"What's at issue here is what has been going on with [the executive committee] and the issues that they have been having this year," junior Alex Niejelow said. Rather, Niejelow backed a ticket system proposed by Jean-Baptiste, where three executive members in a restructured organization would run together under a single agenda.
"[The executive committee] has done really well with getting along," responded Thaniyyah Ahmad, vice president for community interaction, who sat in a row Wednesday night with the three other vice presidents. "Our votes have been almost unanimous on most of the issues we've addressed this year."
Junior Shaomeng Wang disagreed. "It's obvious that we have dissent on the executive board," he said. "However you look at it, I feel that this is personally targeted."
Other legislators wanted to know why other executive elections were not amended. Ahmad said the presidential race is usually the most competitive.
"This is not about attacking a specific individual," Ahmad said. "It's to get everyone on the same field. The reason we don't do this with the other positions is because there's usually only two people running."
Some legislators gathered at the back of the room to oppose the amendment or took seats near Jean-Baptiste, who spoke strongly against the proposal.
"I don't think it's smart for this organization. I think it will hurt us in the long run," he said. "By changing this bylaw, it will not guarantee a coherent executive board."
To override Jean-Baptiste's executive veto, the amendment will require a two-thirds majority vote at the next meeting, March 5.
Among his reasons for vetoing the amendment, Jean-Baptiste noted the close vote and echoed Attorney General Will Fagan's concern that changing the format three weeks before the election increased the probability of error. "We have some real issues in DSG that we need to address that we keep dodging," Jean-Baptiste said.
The final amendment to the election bylaw stipulated that the voting system would be subject to review after one year of implementation, a change submitted by sophomore Andrew Wisnewski. Also, if the Instant Runoff Voting system malfunctions, the winner would require a plurality of at least 10 percent more than the runner-up under a system chosen by Fagan.
Although Jean-Baptiste had planned to present his proposal for restructuring the student government in a presentation to the Legislature, too many legislators left. Ford was not able to call quorum, and the remaining legislators voted to move both Jean-Baptiste's and DSG Vice President for Student Affairs Troy Clair's presentations to the next general body meeting.
IN OTHER BUSINESS: Legislators elected junior Rick Garcia to replace sophomore Emily Brady as an at-large legislator. Members also approved a resolution proposed by junior Avery Reaves, recommending a two-year moratorium on any financial cuts to the biological anthropology and anatomy department. Another resolution lent support to the group Parents at Duke.
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