By By Maggie Cassidy, News Staff

Signatures, shmignatures.
At its senate meeting Monday night, the Student Government Association passed a motion brought forth by Parliamentarian Chris Bourne that waived a clause in the direct elections manual requiring potential candidates to obtain 300 student signatures supporting their nomination.
The motion passed with 29 senators in favor, 14 against and nine abstaining.
Bourne made the motion after Ryan Fox ‘- who was in favor of the motion ‘- was the only senator to turn in a nomination form by the 5 p.m. deadline that day. Earlier that day, at 12:15 p.m., Bourne sent an e-mail to senators alerting them that he had spoken to President Rob Ranley and would make the motion to waive the 300 signatures if he received less than two nomination forms by deadline.
Opponents to the motion included senators Derek Miller and Michael Rockland. Miller questioned whether the senate wanted to nominate ‘one qualified candidate and one warm body to make this look like an election process,’ while Rockland countered proponents’ calls to ‘fix’ the system in order to ensure a two-person election.
‘It’s working perfectly. You can have an election with one person,’ Rockland said during senate.
Students can vote ‘no confidence’ in the election, but proponents worried that the option would deter students from voting and hinder SGA’s attempts at involving 20 percent of the student body.
Senators in opposition also questioned whether a senator could be prepared to run a campaign or hold the presidency if he or she couldn’t get 300 signatures.
Bourne said that if a candidate was unprepared, it would show in his or her campaign.
‘The real test for any candidate is going to be the campaign period and the election,’ he told The News. ‘They’re really going to need to put in a lot of effort, one, to get people to vote and two, for them to elect that person.’
He said the timing to obtain the 300 signatures ‘- during midterms and spring break ‘- played a large part in his decision to make the motion. Ensuring a two-person election also ‘crossed my mind,’ he said, adding that he shared other senators’ worries about meeting the 20 percent mark. But, he added, ‘if there’s only one person who wants to run, I think there’s no problem with that.’
While he said the intention behind the signatures was good because ‘it’s a way of showing drive’ and ‘showing there’s already students behind you,’ he felt the purpose could potentially be better served in other ways and that it needs to be ‘tweaked in the future.’
Ranley said he felt the senate made the right decision.
‘We didn’t want to have the signatures be our only limiting factor,’ he said.