UNC Supreme Court hears Holgate election case

UNC’s Student Supreme Court heard a case Wednesday between Board of Elections Chairman Pete Gillooly and former Student Congress candidate Taylor Ann Holgate, who requested a re-vote for the District 5 election.

The court will make a decision on the case in a week and a half at the earliest, Chief Justice Emma Hodson said.

Holgate claimed the Board of Elections was negligent when ensuring that the online voting system was secure and when certifying the results of the Feb. 9 election.

She said problems with the online voting system disenfranchised several voters, who might have deferred from voting out of fear that their votes would violate the Honor Code.

Incorrect class standing and residence information could have kept as many as 296 students from voting, although Kris Gould, Gillooly’s legal counsel, said fewer than five students in District 5 were likely prevented from voting.

Holgate lost the election for the Greek housing district representative by 25 votes.

“With the system we have now, there’s no mechanism for checking if people have updated their (housing or class) information,” Holgate said. “If students have the wrong information, they have to commit an Honor Code violation to vote, and that’s not right.”

Gillooly said the discrepancies in the housing information that prevented students from voting were not the fault of the BOE and do not merit holding another election.

“Besides the fact that the alleged difficulties are not under the control of the board, I saw little evidence to convince me to invalidate the results based on small voting problems,” he said.

“Additionally, I feel that it is improper to invalidate the results for a single district based on her accusations.”

Holgate’s first complaint was dismissed for citing an incorrect portion of the Student Code. She made that complaint in conjunction with District 1 candidate Marc Seelinger.

Gillooly said the court’s decision could impact future student government elections.

“I worry that if she wins, any other losing candidate could repeat her argument for another election,” he said.

Holgate said she simply wanted to see the BOE provide a fair election for the students.

“It’s not so much about winning,” she said. “It’s more about calling attention to these problems. People don’t understand how much power student government has. If they have that kind of power, we should be able to elect them, and that should be through a fair election.”



Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.