UCF Student Government is nearing the end of its 2021 Presidential Elections, and the university has left the public in the dark through the process.
Each spring, the UCF student body elects a student leader to represent and serve the student body of almost 72,000 and pays them using student fees.
The SG President is the only student member on the UCF Board of Trustees, but this year, the public has had no knowledge of election violation hearings before they took place.
Here’s what Knight News has learned through records requests about the first few election violation hearings — this story will be updated.
March 1
UCF SG Presidential candidates Meg Hall and Austin Wilson were the first ticket to face a violation hearing on March 1.
The hearing can be viewed here.
UCF SG Election Commissioner Kimberly Carlson said in the Feb. 22 affidavit she filed that she witnessed Austin Wilson and Meg Hall attempting to bribe Gamma Phi Beta with the promise of building them a house on Greek Row.
“The fact that Meg described Austin’s experience in housing, asking members of Gamma Phi Beta if they wanted a house, and stating comments like ‘we can do that for you,’ ‘we are the only platform that would be able to do this for you’ and ‘I am a part of Greek Life and understand this problem; were used to promise members of Gamma Phi Beta that by securing their vote and Presidential win, they would be ensuring that Gamma Phi Beta has a house on Greek Row,” the affidavit reads.
Carlson said the promise in exchange for their win should be viewed as a bribe. She said several members of Gamma Phi Beta mentioned to her they “couldn’t wait for our new house” and that “[we] should vote for Meg and Austin so that we can get a house.”
“These comments, combined with the fact that I had not seen any of Meg and Austin’s platforms for Presidency mention this idea made me file this violation,” the document reads.
UCF Election Statutes defines a bribe as “a prize, reward, gift, or favor bestowed or promised with a view to influence the action of another to vote, not vote, or vote for or against a particular candidate/ticket and/or any other item on the ballot, in any way.”
Despite the UCF SG official witnessing the alleged events, the election commission determined that no violation was committed citing a “preponderance of evidence standard.”
Knight News reached out to Meg and Austin for comment and heard back after publication — the full statement is included below:
Pertaining to the Knight News article published on March 8th:
On Feb. 26th, we received an email informing us of a violation hearing which claimed bribery. We were appalled by this accusation. We are firm believers in the capacity of every student to support any given candidate of their choosing and we would not resort to anything that would deter that.
Let it be clear: at no time have we resorted to bribery; neither in our RSO visits, nor in our visit to Gamma Phi Beta. The Election Commission, an independent branch of Student Government, heard the filer’s accusations, and in their capacity to remained unbiased even from their own colleague, found no bribery to have taken place.
If there are any questions regarding this hearing, we encourage you to contact the Election Commission for further explanation on their rationale.
Feel free to reach out anytime if you have any questions.
We look forward to Golden Days Ahead,
Meg & Austin
Note: Meg Hall sent Knight News this letter, written by the Gamma Phi Beta president on behalf of the sorority, after hearing about the affidavit.
“It refutes the claim that we made any sort of promise or ‘bribe’ and was later signed by 11 other sorority members through DocuSign,” Hall said.
March 2
Note: UCF sent Knight News the videos of the March 2 hearings in a Zoom link rather than a recording, and we are working to figure out how to convert and upload them.
Dylan Street and Malachi Mullings faced five violations on Tuesday in two separate hearings.
Opposing vice-presidential candidate Austin Wilson filed four affidavits stating the Dylan and Malachi ticket violated the official UCF COVID-19 Campus Policy.
Despite Dylan and Malachi having the approval to post the photos from the election commission, the commission combined the four affidavits filed by Wilson into one and determined a violation was committed.
The other affidavit was filed by James Evans, a UCF SG senator and chair of the Financial Allocations for Organizations Committee, stating Dylan and Malachi filled out their “fair market” section of the expense statement incorrectly.
During the hearing, Evans stated he obtained the financial statement from the Meg and Austin ticket but that it is his duty — in his role as FAO chair — to review them. He stated he had only reviewed this one.
Knight News reached out to Dylan and Malachi for comment and have not heard back by time of publication.
March 3
The Meg and Austin ticket faced one violation on Wednesday.
The statement, required to be sent by 11:59 p.m. each Sunday of the campaign period, was filed at 1:15 a.m. on Feb. 22 for the week of Feb. 15 to Feb. 21, the affidavit shows.
The affidavit filed on Feb. 25. by SG Supervisor of Elections Favrissy Levya can be seen here.
The Meg and Austin ticket was given a financial limitation of $50.
March 4
The Dylan and Malachi ticket faced one violation on Thursday — the ticket did not attend the hearing.
Supervisor of Elections Leyva filed the affidavit on Feb. 25 but said during the hearing she missed the deadline to submit any tangible evidence.
It is not known at this time why the candidates did not attend this hearing — Knight News was made aware 45 minutes ahead of the time the hearing was supposed to begin.
Only two election commission members determined Dylan and Malachi were in violation of the violation, with a vote count of 2-0-4.
But when it came to the sanctions, five election commissioners decided to vote — with a vote count of 5-0-1 the commission determined the appropriate sanctions.
The ticket was found in violation and sanctioned to a campaign limitation of all electronic media and all in-person campaigning for a day.
This is a developing story and will be updated with new information. Check back with Knight News for updates.
