CCSN’s elections cleared up

Valerie Miller

Friday, May 5, 2000 | 11:05 a.m.

It was a lesson learned for Community College of Southern Nevada students when a recent post-election meeting took place in violation of the state open meeting law.

At that April 14 meeting, newly elected student body president Shannon Schilling was disqualified for having violated campaign rules.

But that meeting itself was disqualified because it was conducted without having been properly posted. At the makeup meeting, Schilling's disqualification was thrown out, rendering his election valid.

"The committee members reversed the disqualification (of Schilling) because they looked at all the violations and decided they were not enough to disqualify him," CCSN student government advisor Julio Murcia said.

The Violations Schilling was charged with originally included failing to have his campaign people wear buttons to identify themselves, and the distribution of an illegal flier.

Murcia said 15 students were elected to various offices during the April 12-13 elections. All the elected students are scheduled to take their offices next Friday, he said.

A new election was not possible, Murcia said, because the school's student government constitution does not allow for repeat elections except in the cases of recalls.

About 1,000 students cast ballots in the annual election in April.

Despite all of the controversy, the situation ended to everyone's satisfaction, Murcia said.