If ever there was a moment for the Student Government to turn to Article VII of its Constitution, dealing with impeachment of executive officers, the recent election debacle would be it.
Did SG make sure that someone was accountable for the screw up during the last election cycle?
Of course not. That would be ethical, legal and responsible.
On Tuesday night, SG voted not to impeach Supervisor of Elections Toni Megna.
To be clear, impeaching a member of SG does not mean that the person will be removed from office. Instead, it means that he or she will face a Student Senate trial on charges of "misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance, abuse of power or conviction of a criminal offense while in office."
At issue in this case was "nonfeasance" on the part of Megna, which the impeachment agenda defined as "the nonperformance of some act which ought to be performed."
The resolution, drafted by members of the Students Party, included 13 elections codes they believed were not followed.
On Tuesday, the Senate went through each of the 13 code violations and voted on whether they were true. If Megna was found not to follow a code, then the Senate considered whether to impeach her.
The Senate voted, by a two-thirds majority, that eight of the 13 rules were not followed. Did they vote that any of these infractions warranted impeachment?
Of course not. That would be ethical, legal and responsible.
The members of SG that voted against the articles of impeachment have violated the honor code in Article I, Section 3 of their constitution, which states "We, the members of the University of Florida community, pledge to hold ourselves and our peers to the highest standards of honesty and integrity."
The members of SG have shown that they do not care about just or fair processes and, instead, opt for convenience, cronyism and favoritism.
Sen. Katie Waldman excused Megna's lack of following the rules by saying that she was a student with other responsibilities.
Well she shouldn't have been supervisor of elections. It's not brain surgery. If you think there might be a problem with performing your duties and obligations when applying for a position, you probably shouldn't go for that position. Any and all mistakes made after the fact are on you, and you need to atone for them.
SG recognizes that rules were not followed and held no one accountable. Well, then, why have election rules in the first place?
Just change it up every semester. Obviously hardly anyone in SG cares that rules are followed.
For that matter, if you're not going to use your impeachment powers when they are needed, you might as well get rid of those, too.
