It's official, students are mad.
After over 19,900 votes were cast, election commissioner Desmond Robinson certified the Student Government Association's 2007 election, officially giving the M.A.D. (Making a Difference) party a victory over the SGAgency at 5:56 p.m. Friday.
A proposition that would raise student fees to purchase green power also passed.
"I think when the students voted, M.A.D. was definitely the party they wanted to lead the student government association," said Kenneth Taylor, M.A.D. senator-elect for the College of Arts and Sciences.
Though votes favored them, the M.A.D. candidates will enjoy a majority in the senate that is finite - 13 seats to SGAgency's 11.
Even the vice-president was decided by just 20 votes, with Vasheta Smith of the M.A.D. party defeating SGAgency candidate James Callicott.
"I don't feel any different," Smith said. "Before I was still the same person advocating change, advocating making a difference and now I'm still that same person."
Except now, Smith has a significant amount of power over student life at The U of M.
Though M.A.D. holds the vice-presidential seat and a majority in the senate, SGAgency president-elect Gionni Carr waltzed his way to victory on Friday unopposed.
With such a small margin of victory, the 58th general assembly of SGA is eerily reminiscent of the United States' Democratic Congress and Republican executive branch.
"Of course, a lot of people have been expecting me to run for (speaker of the senate), and they have referred to Gionni as being Bush and me, if I decide to run for that position, as (Democratic Speaker of the House) Nancy Pelosi," Taylor said.
M.A.D. filed two grievances against the SGAgency, which created some bad blood between the two parties during the election.
One grievance the election commission struck down dealt with Carr announcing his campaign for SGA president at a February step show before filing paperwork in March.
According to the election laws, candidates cannot begin to actively campaign until they have filed with the election commission.
"I wish it would have gone down a totally different way because with the grievances, I think it hurt more than it helped," Carr said. "At the end of the day we're all going to have to work together. It may be a little awkward trying to work with somebody who tried to level a $1,500 grievance against you."
Election laws state violators of the rules can be punished with a fine of $75 per violation and because Carr did not file papers for 21 days after his announcement, M.A.D. candidates said the SGAgency party could have been fined $1,575.
Commissioners upheld the second grievance - stating the name SGAgency was too close to the acronym SGA - and fined the SGAgency party $75.
"In the election laws it says we have the right to file grievances and things of that nature if you have a concern," Taylor said. "That's probably the only comment I'll make towards the grievances."
Similar to the national Congress, if senators are unable to see past their political leanings, they'll be forced to make ties with the five independents who made the cut for the senate - Brian Kennedy, Matthew Avis, Seth Guess, Ashley Sanchez and Cassie Miller.
Both Taylor and Carr expressed a desire to have a cohesive political body next year and to work for the good of students.
"It's not going to be a choice. It's going to have to happen," Carr said. "This is something that I'm actually going to sit down and have my party sit down with their party so we can work out all our grudges."
By a resounding 69 percent, students voted to raise fees to purchase green power from the Tennessee Valley Authority.
In fact, the proposition received the most voters of any other category with 1,659 casting ballots.
Though Carr has shied away from making political promises, he did say he would like to see voter turnout - which rose by over 1,400 in the last four years - increase more than it already has.
For now, he said he is ready to get to work not as two political parties, but as one SGA.
"It ultimately comes down to what the students want and who they feel should represent them," Carr said. "It's not about politics when it comes to the students' welfare."
Complete election results can be found online at http://electsga.Memphis.edu
