Hanover rejects appeal; O'Donoghue victorious
By TIM LOGAN
News Editor
In a surprise move Monday, Hunt Hanover and John Micek said they would not appeal the Election Committee's forfeiture of their candidacy for student body president and vice president, ending an election that has been marked with controversy from the start.
The decision was made Sunday evening, according to Micek, after the pair and some of supporters met and agreed that to file an appeal, dragging out what has already been a long and arduous election, would only further alienate students from student government.
"When you're elected," he said, "You represent the attitudes of the student body, and this election has pushed the student body out of student government."
Micek expressed hope that the newly elected ticket — Brian O'Donoghue and Brooke Norton — would work to repair that damage.
O'Don-oghue, no longer worried about an appeal, was enthusiastic to get to work.
"Brooke and I are really happy now that we have the opportunity to go full-steam straight ahead and work to make Our Lady's University a better place," he said. The pair has been working as student body president and vice president-elect since Friday, he said, preparing for the year in office.
The forced forfeiture cast a shadow over their initial victory Thursday, but O'Donoghue did not predict a similar shadow would be cast over the coming year.
"Would we have liked to won on a popular vote, absolutely," he said. "But is this in any way going to hinder our administration, absolutely not."
The pair was handed the presidency Thursday when the Election Committee, made up of judicial commissioners from each dorm, voted that Hanover/Micek violated three election bylaws, and thus were eliminated from the race. The violations each involved the use of e-mail in campaigning, and one noted that senior Michael Fairchild, a Hanover/Micek supporter, campaigned on behalf of the pair on an election day.
These violations were what Hanover/Micek intended to appeal, but the candidates changed their minds over the weekend, deciding not to draw out the election process any further.
"This isn't about all [the violations]," Micek said. "We want to make it known that we want this to end, and we think the student body is crying out for this to end."
With the election having been forfeited, the actual vote tallies were never released, so almost no one knows who would have emerged victorious if the Election Committee had been overturned. O'Donoghue/Norton won the primary election Monday, Feb. 14 by nine percent of the vote, however.
Thursday night, Hanover and Micek said they would appeal, and campaign manager Dan Peate had prepared an appeal document, which was expected to be filed Monday. But instead, the team to end the election, one that they feared was alienating the very students they were hoping to represent.
"It was a very difficult decision," Peate said.
All News Stories for Tuesday, February 22, 2000
