The Student Government Association election is off to a rough start after six members of the Students Unite party were disqualified after missing one of the many offered rules meetings.

The meetings provide candidate information about campaign rules and penalties of the Election Act.

According to the SGA Journal, candidates are required to attend a rules meeting before they start campaigning or face disqualification.

Darren Beckham, presidential candidate for the Students Unite party, unsuccessfully appealed the Election Commission’s decision Wednesday on the basis of inconsistencies in communication.

Beckham argued that correspondence led him and his party to believe that there would be another meeting offered by the Election Commission the week of April 7, the day campaigning started. The extra meeting was to accommodate for candidates traveling to the Final Four basketball game in Atlanta.

“The Final Four was unprecedented on so many levels,” Beckham said. “In my head, I think it was enough reason to make an exception.”

Chief Election Commissioner Olivia Sullivan understood how she could have been misleading, but said “they maybe should have been a little more proactive.”

Sullivan said she posted the dates of the original two meetings on March 13, but did not know Students Unite party members could not attend the scheduled meetings until April 3, the week before campaigning started. Even though the Final Four basketball game was unforeseen, she said many of the disqualified candidates had other reasons to schedule another rules meeting if they had been brought up before the last possible week.

Ultimately, Sullivan said she did not know if the Election Commission would schedule another meeting or not and wanted to consult the rest of the commission before any decision would be made. 

Commission member Matt Conklin sympathized with Beckham, saying that he had an issue with Sullivan making it sound like there would be another meeting. Ultimately, however, he said that, “A lot of it seems like an issue with [Beckham’s] campaign.”

Shockers Uniting Reality & Vision (SURV) presidential candidate Sean McLemore said that he agreed with the decision.

“All of our party members were able to make it to the rules meetings,” McLemore said. “[Our members] knew how important it was to our party.”

McLemore said that his party made the effort to attend the meetings and that several members of his party were at the Final Four game, as well.

McLemore’s party also said it would challenge the Election Commission’s decision if it accepted Beckham’s appeal.

“Had that rule not been upheld, I would have been disappointed,” McLemore said.

In the end, the Commission decided to uphold the rules written in Journal.

“This is our first major case [as an Election Commission],” Conklin said. “This sets the tone for the rest of the election. I would like to see it black and white going by the rules.”

Going forward, Beckham said that he hopes the disqualified members still show up at meetings and share their ideas for the party.

“Every year, there’s going to be open spots in SGA,” Beckham said. “I can’t promise anything, but I really want to see [their] applications. In my mind, I think they’ve earned a place in SGA.”