Communication errors reported in 2022-23 SGA elections
Reporting about the SGA, not a record of it: The Johns Hopkins News-Letter published this and the SGA did not write it, file it, or approve it. The archive holds it because the article itself uses the phrases “sga” and “student government”.
Summary
- This Johns Hopkins News-Letter article covers complaints about communication, election timing and voter-turnout reporting in the 2022–23 SGA elections.
- The paper reported that elections ran online from March 14 to 17 after information sessions, a debate and a Candidate Meet and Greet; it also reported that candidates had less than 24 hours to prepare for the debate after the final session.
- The article says Breanna Soldatelli and Mehak Ali linked the short campaign period and limited communication to low turnout and fewer candidates.
- According to the article, reported turnout was 20.3% overall, based on 426 executive-board votes out of 5,040 eligible voters and separate class-council results of 13.3%, 20.4% and 14.7% for the senior, junior and sophomore classes.
- The News-Letter reported that Raymond Perez said the overall calculation double-counted votes, while Ali called for turnout data showing unique voters by class and election type.
- The reporter writes that Soldatelli said freshmen could initially vote in junior elections, and the CSE did not respond to the paper’s request for comment.
- The article adds that Soldatelli described efforts to increase transparency, while Ali proposed adding in-person voting booths alongside online voting.