Barron Mayfield was elected Associated Student Body President after defeating Leah Davis in a runoff election on Thursday night. The vice presidential runoff between Sarah Doty and Charlotte Shackelford is still undecided and will head to a “secondary runoff.”
Mayfield, a junior public policy leadership major from Lubbock, Texas, won with 53.48% of the vote.
Acting ASB Attorney General Anya Czerwinski and Interim Deputy Attorney General of Elections Bennett Wilfong announce that there will be a secondary runoff in the ASB vice presidential election on Tuesday. Photo by Devna Bose
The vice presidential election between Shackelford and Doty was undecided as of Thursday night. Before announcing election results outside of the Lyceum, judicial council officials announced that they were holding a hearing within the judicial branch of ASB.
The runoff in the vice presidential election will take place on Tuesday, April 9.
Alex Crouch, the ASB Judicial Chair, said in a statement to The Daily Mississippian that the judicial council voted unanimously to reject an “erroneous” decision made by the ASB Attorney General’s Office to disqualify a vice presidential candidate.
“The Council came to this decision primarily because it determined due process was not properly afforded to the candidate,” the statement read. “The candidate was originally disqualified without being provided an opportunity to present a defense.”
In response to Crouch’s statement, Shackelford said the vice presidential candidate in question was not her.
Barron Mayfield defeated Leah Davis in the runoff election for Associated Student Body president with 53.48% of the vote. Photo by Devna Bose.
Doty, the other candidate in the runoff, was unable to be reached for a comment.
Bennett Wilfong, Interim Deputy Attorney General of Elections, said the judicial council would release a statement tomorrow about next week’s “secondary” election.
Wilfong and other members of the justice department and judicial council would not answer questions related to the election.
JC Pride, the chairman of the ASB elections commission, declined to comment on the election results, the hearing or who would be in the second runoff, and referred all questions to Interim Attorney General Anya Czerwinski. Czerwinski also declined to comment.
Incoming judicial chair Liza Boyer said she had no access to the information regarding Thursday’s judicial hearing.
Charlotte Shackelford is shocked as it is announced that the election for Associated Student Body vice president is still undecided. The runoff election will take place this Tuesday. Photo by Katherine Butler.
“I’m just as in the dark as anyone else,” Boyer said. “The only person who would be able to speak about the hearings is the current judicial chair Alex Crouch.”
Shackelford, the current chairman of the Government Operations Committee in ASB, ran a campaign centered around building the relationship between senators and their constituents, which she hopes will result in increased accessibility to ASB for students.
“I didn’t expect anything like this to happen, but I’m excited I get more than (three days) to talk to people,” Shackelford said. “And same plan as it’s always been, just keep putting out my campaign the way it’s always been.”
Doty, the current senate chair on the infrastructure committee, defined her campaign by saying she plans to improve the everyday lives of students by focusing on issues in parking, housing and facilities on campus. She could not be reached for comment.
5,300 students turned out to vote today, in what interim attorney general Anya Czerwinski described as the second highest turnout for a runoff election in the university’s history.
Maddy Quon contributed reporting to this article.
