Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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VOL LXIII-No. 44 University of South Carolina, Columbia, S. C. 29208 Monday, April 2. 1973 i a. By Thomas A. Price USC law student Harry Davis-'a chilling effect on the students' right to vote.' McKinney, Wright View Elections By SYBIL NORWOOD and BUNNY SMITH Rita McKinney, newly elected student body president, was congradulated by her former opponent, Bryant Wright. Wright said he thought McKinney was "very capable" and wished her a "very successful year." Wright attributed his loss of the election to the fact that he was outside the student government clique which "made it very tough." He said he was representing the students who felt neglected by the established student government. "I ran to offer a change in the direction of student govern ment," Wright said. He felt that the student government had to get involved with the students and begin communicat ing with them. Wright said if the student government became involved with the students this year, he felt that his campaign helped. Wright said he did not think he would have done anything differently. He said he ran a "straight" campaign to offer the students a change in the direction of Student Govern ment, but it seemed that the students were satisified with the established group of people. Wright said he was "very disappointed" with the outcome of the election. He said he felt that the reduction of polls could have affected the outcome but there was no way of actually knowing. However, Wright said that he felt it was "unreasonable" to have the elections again. He said that (See ELECTIONS, Page 3) Graduation Set Applications for tion and a seating chart. degrees must be filled out Graduating seniors will by graduating seniors and be separated into groups submitted to the Records acrigt olg n Office by April 9. They tpodgetewlb may be obtained at the reivn.Ecstdt Administration Building wilbasgndapefc or dean's offices of vari- setwihilaparo ous schools. tesaigcat te Spring commencement intutoswldelih exercises will be held 2:30 whnadheetrpo. p.m. May 12 at the Gauto niain Coliseum, according to wilgonsetdafr the Division of Educa- 3 et aho 29 e tional Services,.oe tteCmu hp In approximately two gwshdntbe weeks, Educational Ser- re ivd btw e vices will mail to each stu- exctdogonsaelo dent attending graduation fraot$.5 codn a letter containing toCmuhpsoe. instructionsifgrsgradua-wmln Election, McKinne By BUNNY SMITH Gamecock Staff Writer Rita McKinney was elected stu dent body president and Leigh Leventis was elected vice president after the USC Supreme Court ruled Friday that the March 16 SGA elec tion run-offs were valid. The ruling came after a four-hour hearing. T. Furman Brodie and Harry W. Davis, USC law students, submitted a petition to the Elections Commis sion which declared the elections void. The Elections Commission denied the petition and the plaintiffs immediately appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. In their opening statement to the court, Brodie and Davis stated the elections should be invalidated because no permanent polls were establishe4l, the students' right to a secret ballot was violated, the number of polls was reduced from 8 to 1 and there was a lack of notice about the change of the polls. "Reducing the polling places had a chilling effect on the students' right to vote," Davis and Brodie said. "Most students were prepar ing to go home for spring break and in order to vote had to walk great distances or fight for parking spaces at Russell House," where the only poll was located. They said the fact that only one polling place was available was "a discouraging fac tor" in the voter turnout. The plaintiffs presented wit nesses who testified that the one poll violated their right to vote. John Hassell, a law student, said he did not vote March 16 because there was no poll at Petrigru (the old law school building). Hassell testified that he felt his right to vote had been violated. Loretta Brown, a South Tower resident who votes at South Build ing, said she felt her right to vote had been abused. She said she voted at the South Building poll the first two elections, but when she went there to vote March 16, there was no poll. The plaintiffs, Brodie and Davis, also claim that inadequate notice was given regarding the change of the polling places. They admitted that a notice did appear in The Gamecock, but thought it was inadequate because it was only a two-line paragraph on page 3. Both Brown and Hassell testified that no notices were posted at their previous polling places to directi them where to vote. Hassell said noi signs appeared at Petrigru and be< was "confused." Brown said no signs appeared at South BuildingI and she did not know where to vote. Under cross-examination by Dan Yarborough, attorney general rep-1 resenting the Elections Commis sion, Brown said she did not read The Gamecock. ' Brodie and Davis also contendedi that the students' right to a secret ballot was violated because third 1 parties did see the ballots. Jay Ben der testified that a girl he believed< to be Becky Nates of' the Elections Commission opened his ballot in spite of his objections. Bender tes tified that he felt his right to a secret ballot had been violated. He also tes tified that he saw other voters' bal lots opned. Declare y, Leven' T. FURMAN BRODIE ...co-plantiff. TONY DANIELS ...no violation of secret ballots. The plaintiffs also claimed that the elections should be invalidated because no permanent polling places were established. Tony Daniels, Elections Commission chairman, admitted that no perma nent polling places had been estab lished because no past records were ivailable. Daniels said the polls, according to Senate statute, would be established on the basis of popu lation and past turnout. Since no ast records were available, he said, ao permanent polling places could e established. The polling places established in this election were experimental polls for the estab ishment of permanent polls at a ater date. Tony Daniels, called as a witness my Atty. Gen. Yarborough, said no violation of students' secret ballots >ccurred "to the best of his know edge." Daniels said the ballots A'ere opened for validation and to separate the ballots according to >resident and vice president. He said the opening of the ballots made ounting the votes easier and faster nd the separation of the ballots aved time and money. The elec tion om mission chairman said no mark ngs were on the outside of the bal ots to indicate ywhich was president and vice president and the ballots sad to be oned.naniel d Valid, tis Win emphasized that the ballots were opened only by a third party. For example, a poll watcher would take the vote from another poll watcher who received it from the voter, then hand the ballot to Becky Nates or Daniels to be validated. Nates, the alleged person who opened the ballots, submitted a statement to the court which stated that she did open the ballots to ver ify them with a stamp and she did not "ascertain" how anyone voted. She said that with a "concentrated effort" she could have remembered how one person voted. Daniels emphasized that all ballots without the stamp were considered void bal lots. Daniels said the decision to set up one poll was a "difficult" one. Only one polling place was set up because of limited election funds and not enough people were available to man all the polls, he said. He said he did not expect as many students to vote as did vote. Daniels pointed out that all the candidates agreed that there be only one polling place. Daniels said the Russell House was chosen because it was centrally located and enough people were available to staff the Gold Spur. Daniels testified that signs appeared at all previous polling places, in the Russell House, and in some dormitories. The witnesses for the plaintiffs testified that no signs were at previous polling places to direct them where to vote. Yarborough then called Harry Davis, one of the plaintiffs, to the stand. Davis said he did vote in all the elections. When asked how he knew where to vote, Davis replied .that a student worker told him and he saw it in The Gamecock, although he had "to look for it." Davis said when he voted, he handed his ballot to Daniels who in turn handed it to Nates who opened it. Davis said he "objected viol ently" to Daniels. Davis said that Nates handled more than one ballot, but she could have easily read his ballot. In the closing arguments, Davis and Brodie again listed their grounds for invalidation of the elec tions, asking that the March 16 run offs be invalidated Yarborough said there was no basis for the invalidation of the elec tions. He said the claims of reduc tion of polls from 8 to 1 was the "best possible" way to handle the situa tion at the time. Yarborough stated that adequate notice was given because signs appeared at the pre vious polling places, Russell House, the law school, and other dor mitories. Yarborough said one person, Becky Nates, stamped all ballots and did not look at how one person voted. This procedure was used to insure that no ballot box stuffing occurred. Yarborough said that to prove violation of secret ballots did occur, the petitioners would ha ve to prove that Nates actually knew how a person voted. Acting Chief Justice Pollard handed down the decision which allowed the elections to stand. Doug Dent, chief justice of the Supreme Court, disqualified himself because he felt the elections were so fair that he could not rule "completely objcc