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Joke Break
Probable Cause Votes Could Sway Election
Daily Utah Chronicle, April 3, 2002
Although Impact won the presidential primary elections with 276 more votes than second-place contender Elevation, the 785 students who voted for Apathy and Probable Cause can still easily sway the outcome.
"The primaries are no indicator of what's going to happen in the finals," said Bill Edwards, Impact presidential candidate, after learning he won the primary vote.
Final voting began yesterday and will end tonight at 9 p.m. Elections officials will announce the results in the Union Ballroom between 8 and 11 p.m April 4.
ASUU chose to announce the results the day after voting concludes to ensure that all fines are paid and grievances resolved before the planned time. Only two grievances have been filed this year, both reporting minor violations of the sign-posting policies by Impact.
In last year's election, the Innovation Party won the primary election, with a 378 vote lead, but lost the final election by 66 votes to the No Bull Party. The Unity and U Force parties, who earned 870 votes between them, threw their support behind No Bull last year after losing the primary elections.
AnnMarie Allen, presidential candidate from Elevation, was senior class president under No Bull's final victory and hopes to replicate that underdog victory this year. Her party received 754 votes in the primary elections to Impact's 1,030 votes. This is a smaller deficit than the 378 votes No Bull recovered from last year.
"We're going to give it our all in the finals," Allen said. "We hope to come out on the top."
The Probable Cause Party earned 582 votes in the primary election, which would hand Elevation an impressive victory if channeled to that party.
"[Rinehart] had 600 voters supporting them, they needed a place," Allen said. "He chose to direct his support to us."
Despite Allen's assertion, Rinehart said he is not endorsing either party.
"I'm trying not to play too much of a role in anyone's campaign," he said. "I want to see my concerns live on through the next administration."
Allen met with Rinehart Saturday. The two party leaders talked about their platforms and discussed making changes to the position of ASUU attorney general.
If elected, Elevation hopes to place a board under the attorney general and have that office advise ASUU on state laws as well as the constitution and bylaws of ASUU. Allen hopes this will increase ASUU's credibility with the state and give law students experience.
Although Allen mentioned having a law student hold the new attorney general position, she was not necessarily referring to Rinehart.
"We don't have anyone in particular in mind," she said. "We don't promise positions."
Rinehart said accepting an offered position would be a "possibility," but does not plan to apply for it.
Besides the changes to the attorney general position, Elevation will not change its platform to fit Rinehart's.
"We have our own way of going about parking," Allen said. She shied away from Rinehart's other pet issues, such as the English proficiency requirement for teaching assistants, saying, "we'll look into it."
Although Elevation's platform is still different from Probable Cause's, Allen hopes she can get the same voters.
"I think really what they wanted to see out of Rinehart was that he could really get something done," she said. "By knowing ASUU really well, we will be able to accomplish something."
Edwards and Randall Lloyd from the Impact Party also spoke with Rinehart over the weekend.
"He's a real informed voter, we'd love his support," Edwards said. "It's really important [to Rinehart] that the issues he has in his platform don't fall by the wayside."
Although Impact is "aware" of the 785 votes up for grabs, the party does not plan to campaign any differently.
"I don't think we're going to change our approach," Lloyd said. "We're still ourselves."
Rinehart does not think the 582 students who voted for him will vote in a block anyway.
"I think a lot of those students are students who think the candidates are generally ineffective," Rinehart said. "I think their votes will be split."
