University of Virginia Library

Council Passes Election Motion
Removing All Party Labels

By RICHARD JONES

After extending the deadline for
submitting petitions in the upcoming
Council elections, the Student Council
Tuesday night passed a motion by a roll
call vote requiring that "no party labels
be listed on the ballots."

Commenting on the legality of the
upcoming council elections, Tom Collier,
President of the Student Council,
suggested that the election deadline be
extended to Tuesday to Tuesday of next
week since "Council has not announced
the elections (as required by the By-Laws
of this body), we may not be able to hold
these elections."

Offering another idea Vice-president
Peter Gillespie claimed that "if you
extend the deadline, it is only rational to
extend election day two or three days."

After extending the deadline for
submitting petitions, Council voted to
suspend the By-Laws, pertaining to
announcement of the elections, by the
needed two-thirds vote.

Opposing the motion requiring no
party labels be listed on the ballots, Chris
Kerr, fourth-year College representative,
said that "the December Coalition would
not have formed if they knew that this
motion would be passed."

Larry Sabato, second-year College
representative who proposed this motion
last week in Council, clarified this
proposal saying that "this motion is not
directed against anyone or any
organization." He explained that "the
main reason parties are formed are
financial."

"Students are voting for people, not
parties," Mr. Sabato said.

"If the uninformed students do not
vote along party lines," Mr. Collier asked,
"what do they vote along?" He added that
"a party became identified by the issues
they raised."

Changing party lines in the middle of
an election is awfully shaky," Mr. Collier
concluded.

Steve Edwards, third-year College
representative, stated that "the first-year
people, who are the largest voting body,
will not remember the names of the
candidates the upperclass know."

According to Barbara Sugarman,
fourth -year Education School
representative, "these people, (the party
candidates), are going to have to stand
alone after the elections" and, "having
the party label on the ballots means
nothing to me."

Phil Chabot, Secretary of the Student
Council, and David Horan, who is running
together with Mr. Chabot in the
upcoming elections, had proxy votes
submitted for them in the vote on this
motion.

Mr. Gillespie ruled that, "the proxy
vote is invalid according to Roberts Rules
of Order." He added that "it is allowed
only when the constitution permits it"
and "it is not mentioned anywhere in our
Constitution or By-Laws."

In other action, Council, after
expressing its criticism of the manner in
which tickets were distributed for the
first two basketball games, also passed a
resolution requesting "that more free
tickets be made available to students for
the first two home games."

The first motion, proposed by Carl
Biscoe, Graduate Arts and Sciences
representative, expressed Council
criticism of "the Athletic Department for
the unfair and inappropriate manner in
which tickets were distributed to students
for the first two home games."

It specifically pointed out that "the
distribution of tickets at University Hall
discriminated against those students
without automobiles and for the
distribution of tickets for the Baldwin
Wallace game after all public
announcements had stated that these
tickets were not available at this time."