UPDATE: The Verdict is In Regarding the FSU SGA Election Allegations
Weeks before the UCF SGA presidential elections begin, KnightNews.com is following a breaking elections scandal out of Florida State University which calls the election’s results into question.
Unlike UCF, FSU’s SGA requires candidates file reports showing who contributed money to SGA presidential campaigns, according to a press release from the FSU Progress Coalition. Winners in an SGA election have millions of dollars at their disposal to award in the form of contracts.
According to a press release sent by Progress Coalition — an apparently progressive political party, seemingly like the progressive SGA candidates that have run at UCF — the incumbent Ignite Party could be disqualified for failing to file “a campaign contribution statement, a bank statement, and a full itemized list of expenses and receipts.” A hearing in front of the FSU SGA Elections Commission is set for Monday, Feb. 13 at 7:30 p.m.
Ignite’s Rueben Stokes was already declared the winner of the FSU presidential election, where only 6,172 students voted, according to FSUNews.com. It was the third semester in a row that party dominated the SGA elections by winning every contested seat.
Even though UCF doesn’t require its candidates to report where their campaign budgets come from, the issue sparked a controversy during last year’s election when a giant truck full of food, owned by a company that does business with SGA, showed up in front of the UCF Student Union to encourage students to vote for one candidate over another.
Because UCF allows its candidates to accept unlimited donations without any accountability, KnightNews.com could never find out with 100 percent certainty who paid for the food used to lobby for votes.
KnightNews.com is working to contact the Ignite party to get reaction to these accusations levied against the party. Check back for updates.
You can read the full press release from the Progress Coalition on the next page.
