University of Virginia Library

Rod MacDonald

Fourth-Year Election

Photo By Dulany Hall

Pete Schmidt's election last
spring as president of the class of
1970 will be hotly contested at next
week's Student Council meeting by
at least one of the defeated
candidates, because Bob Green, the
outgoing president who conducted
the election, mishandled the
balloting and vote-counting.

Schmidt was apparently elected
last spring from a large field of
candidates as the College, whose
graduating class picks the class
president, followed its tradition of
choosing a candidate who
represents the "Old University"
style when fraternity and football
were the prime qualifications for
student office. Schmidt is a Zeta Psi
and a football player who ran and
lost for president of Sceptre
Society last year.

But Jon Miller, a liberal
candidate who has worked for the
Virginia Progressive Party, is
challenging Schmidt's victory on
the grounds that Green mishandled
the entire election. He is now
circulating a petition among the
other candidates, and expects to
have at least four of their signatures
when he asks the Council to
invalidate the election Tuesday
night.

The evidence that the election
was botched is impressive. First,
Green waited until the very end of
the school year to announce the
election, which was held after The
Cavalier Daily stopped publishing
for the year. As a result, after he
counted the votes, he announced
Schmidt had defeated Paul Larsen,
a liberal independent, for the post
and then discarded the ballots,
making any numbers check
impossible. No tallies were offered,
although some observers claim the
margin was only four votes between
Schmidt and Larsen.

In addition, about one-fourth of
the ballots failed to carry the names
of Miller and Jack Rhoades,
another candidate. Instead, they
listed the unknown quantity of
"Jon Rhoades," and Green never
said to whom those votes were
credited.

Third, there were no
poll-watchers at any of the
unannounced, scattered ballot
boxes. Rumors have since
circulated that every member of the
Zete house, including pledges, had
voted for Schmidt, and without
poll-watchers the charge cannot be
disproved. Since only about 60
votes are needed to win the post,
two fraternities casting illegal votes
could decide the victor, and
although such stuffing was
probably not the case, the charge
cannot be countered.

Last, Green was seemingly the
only person to count votes, and
several students have charged that
he tacked an extra day of voting
onto the election when he
discovered after two days that
Larsen was leading, making it
possible for Schmidt's supporters to
have an extra go at the polls.

Although it is unlikely that
Green or Schmidt tried to rig the
results, Green's backing of Schmidt
for the post coupled with the
manner in which it was handled
throws the entire result into
jeopardy. Green had every reason
to support Schmidt: both were
excellent leaders who led the
"traditional" factions of their
classes. Both had sought, and failed
to attain, the Presidency of the
College through the political
societies, and both were "kings" of
the IMP Society, an honorary
society of fraternity men. All the
similarities would have been
irrelevant, however, had not Green
bungled the election, providing the
losers with the opportunity to
protest the results.

More is actually at stake here
than the annual popularity contest
for class president. Miller's
approach to the election was that a
liberal, possibly activist student
should be elected to use the office
as a potential sounding board on
student affairs. This idea conflicts
strongly with the old approach that
a candidate should not campaign or
do anything for the honorary
presidency, just stand for votes and
get his picture in the yearbook.

Most observers doubt, however,
that Miller himself could win the
post in another election. That fact
makes Larsen the crucial figure in
the whole mess, for he is probably
the only liberal (he is accepted in
radical circles) who could defeat
Schmidt in another balloting.

Council President Bud Ogle has
already assigned the Elections
Committee to study the matter, but
the committee is still in a formative
stage, and the chairman (probably
Kevin Mannix, who is sympathetic
to Miller's challenge) will be
announced today. It is expected
that the Council, voting along
decidedly liberal-conservative lines,
will invalidate the prior election
and require a new one to be held
soon.

Schmidt will undoubtedly face a
handicap, the reputation that he
"stole" the original victory,
although this writer doubts that he
indulged in any extra-legal, vote
taking. But the fact remains that
the election was poorly publicized,
the ballots were unfairly printed, and
the voting was done without any
supervision. On those facts Miller
will build his case, and next week
will probably force a new election.