PSSS Establishes Election Committee After Nomination Hiccup

James Kelly

He/Him

News Editor

4/17/25

The Plymouth State Student Senate voted Monday to establish a committee to oversee PSSS elections. The new committee was created in a series of three new bylaw amendments, each of which PSSS approved unanimously.

Members of the election committee, which will include the Senate Speaker, Vice Speaker, Parliamentarian, and volunteers, will be responsible for planning, publicizing, and administering PSSS elections, according to the amendment. The committee will enforce the election and campaign timeline, and will count ballots once elections close. 

The committee will also be responsible for resolving election disputes. Notably, the creation of the committee follows a controversy in the Student Body President election that did not result in any formal disputes, but drove tensions within the PSSS Executive Board.

To incumbent Student Body President Liam Leavitt, the issue was clear cut: Junior Vickie Ni missed the deadline to nominate herself to run for Student Body President. Ni, a Political Science and Environmental Science and Policy double major, filled out the nomination form on Monday, April 7th, even though the nomination phase of the election ended on Tuesday, April 1st. 

However, the situation was more complicated in the eyes of University System Student Board Trustee Ethan Dupuis. Why was the form still open, he asked, and what were the mechanisms for addressing disputes? Dupuis also noted that nominees had to confirm their candidacy after the April 1st deadline passed, and questioned the distinction between someone confirming their nomination versus submitting it for the first time. At the very least, PSSS needed to establish a process to hear disputes, he argued. Dupuis advocated for Student Senate to hold an emergency meeting before the election, but the meeting was never held and Ni did not appear on the ballot.

Ni told The Clock she intended to launch a write-in campaign once she realized she had missed the deadline to get on the ballot, but did not learn her bid to get a write-in option had failed until the election opened. “I’m a firm believer in the right to petition,” she said, “and PSSS’s denial to even listen to my petition set my belief that I wouldn’t work or comply with an organization that denies this right.”

The election committee will now serve as the vehicle for resolving these kinds of issues, Dupuis said on Monday. “I’m happy there is a dispute process,” he said. “If there’s a dispute… we actually have a tribunal of sorts.” 

The Student Senate also approved bylaw amendments to establish a governance committee and to codify the PSSS resignation process. 

The governance committee, comprising the E-Board and class council secretaries, will review the PSSS bylaws and constitution annually. It will be responsible for publishing amendments to the PAW and preserving formal consistency. “This is going to set a really good precedent for really looking through the rest of the constitution and our bylaws,” Dupuis said. “I’m a fan of everything that we’re doing.”