By Joe Wilson —
Run-off elections for Student Government Association (SGA) have begun. Voting opened April 21 at 12 a.m. and will run through April 24 at 12 a.m. The ballot was sent to all students via email.
On the ballot, students will be able to vote for candidates running for student body president and academic vice president.
The election for student body president will be between candidates Sydney Finley and Dorian Brown. The run-off comes weeks after the SGA Supreme Court handed down a controversial decision that changed the unofficial results of the election. In the first round of voting, which took place March 7-9, the unofficial results showed Brown in first with 844 votes and Finley in second with 791 votes. However, after post-election lawsuits that alleged campaign rule violations, the Court implemented a three percent vote sanction per alleged violation that reduced Brown’s vote total to 421 and Finley’s to 670. The Court did not change its initial decision, but chose to move the election to a run-off following the significant backlash from the student body.
The run-off for academic vice president will be between candidates Bryson Sebastian and Kendall Tubbs. In the first round of voting, Sebastian came in first with 579 votes and Tubbs came in second with 535 votes. With neither candidate receiving the 40 percent plurality threshold mandated by the SGA General Election Rules, the race automatically moved to a run-off.
There was also a run-off planned for the position of executive vice president that was set to be between Katie Hayden and Valerie Tran. However, Tran has since announced that she did not want the position, leaving Hayden as the next executive vice president.
After the unofficial results are tallied on April 25, campaigns will have until April 28 to file any lawsuits regarding the election results.
File Graphic // The Louisville Cardinal
