by WILL HAUSMANN April 15, 2019
The BSG elections closed last night to raucous ambivalence on the part of Bowdoin Students. Ural Mishra was elected president and some other people were probably elected to some other positions. Blank dot also had a very good night, receiving 630 votes all while running 5 campaigns. Some BSG members have suggested Blank Dot might be able to win a chair position next year with a more focused effort.
Mishra beat out second place candidate Nate DeMoranville for the presidency by 158 votes after ranked choice voting. Early exit poll data show that DeMoranville underperformed with Midwest voters. DeMoranville also failed to win the key endorsement of the Ohio Students Alliance, a crucial voting block on campus who chose not to endorse anyone this cycle.
There are also reports that the outgoing president, Mo Nur, has yet to sign the official vote totals with the Presidential Crayon, after numerous claims of voter fraud and other electoral concerns.
The new Ranked Voice Voting software used this election cycle may have impacted the final outcome. Damien Ruff-Stuff ‘20, an alleged “computer scientist,” developed the new software. However, Ruff-Stuff is also a known crony of the Mishra Campaign, and there are potential conflict of interest claims that have been raised.
Additionally, multiple students who had yet to satisfy their MCSR requirement stated confusion with the new Ranked Choice Voting format. “Once you start asking me to count to three I get pretty confused,” said Robert Miller ’20 to the Harpoon.
The Harpoon is also investigating claims of voter fraud by the Mishra campaign. We received multiple anonymous tips on our voter fraud hotline that people were using the public computers in HL to vote for students that forgot to sign out of their accounts. We have turned all information over to the BSG, and they are investigating the measure with typical bureaucratic indifference.
Interested parties have until Friday April 19th to file official electoral complaint forms. Forms can be found on the BSG website.
The Bowdoin Harpoon 