The Associated Students Legislative Council debated the upcoming A.S. spring elections during Wednesday night’s five-hour meeting.
Council members discussed at length whether or not to remove A.S. Attorney General Miles Freeman — who is also running for representative-at-large with the Bettering Our School System Party during the coming election — from office to ensure a fair elections process. In assessing the upcoming election, council members also questioned whether to increase the time allotted to the off-campus representative forum.
Representative-at-Large Beth Goodman recommended that Freeman be removed from his current post.
“He is running for council representative — he is running for the elections and controlling the elections,” she said. “This is a conflict of interest.”
Promptly following Goodman’s comments, council members approved the removal of Freeman from his attorney general position.
However, Freeman denied the allegations.
“I’d like everyone to examine themselves,” Freeman said. “Several of you have more power to affect change, other than myself.”
Moreover, Off-Campus Representative Abby Cordova said Freeman deserved to not only keep his current office, but hold an office next year as well.
“Miles has been sitting through our meetings through the whole time,” she said. “If we feel that he’s being biased, we have enough power to push him away. I feel that taking the easy way out and kicking him out is ridiculous.”
The council eventually decided to overrule the original decision and reinstate Freeman back to office.
Additionally, other members said they did not like the format of the A.S. elections ballot and speakers forum.
A few voiced concern that the order of candidates’ names on the ballot put the Democratic Process Party, whose candidates were on the bottom of the majority of lists, at a disadvantage.
However, A.S. Community Volunteer Coordinator Ruth Granados said the electronic ballot, which she said would differ from the print version handed out to council members, would be randomized for each voter.
Furthermore, Representative-at-Large Jake Elwood said the one-hour allotted for the elections forums would not provide the 35 candidates running for off-campus representative with enough time to express their views.
“By the way that it has been set up and divided, many members will only get about 1-2 minutes to speak,” he said.  
Although Granados agreed with Elwood’s concern, she said the A.S. Elections Committee would need to discuss the matter before the procedure could be altered. After approximately 15 minutes of discussion on the topic throughout the meeting, the council ultimately decided to table the approval of the elections ballot until next week. The election is scheduled to begin April 19.