“All elections shall be a two (2) day voting period.  Voting shall run continuously from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. CT on Tuesday through Wednesday… Absolutely no voting shall take place before or after the scheduled times.”

Taken from Title V, Section 1 of the Student Government of West Texas A&M University Election Code, those words explicitly state the days and times in which elections are to take place on campus.  Today, numerous votes were cast prior to the 8:30 a.m. start time outlined by the University Election Code.

At 8:13 a.m. the hyperlink to vote in the 2016-2017 student government and football stadium referendum elections was activated, allowing a seventeen-minute window of early voting in violation of the election code.  Cameron Tipton, Student Body Chief Justice, confirmed the violation.

“Yes, as a technicality [the code was violated].  I understand that that doesn’t come across as a technicality,” Tipton said.  “Prior to this year we’ve had 30-minute time slots; I don’t know what happened [this year].  Like I said, that’s not a technicality that I would say is a violation of anything because we were all watching the polls just as we would have been if it had been at 8:30.  I will tell you, yes, that I understand where it is coming from with the Code [violation] but also there are things above and beyond at the IT level we didn’t have control over today.”

This is a developing story and The Prairie will post updates as information becomes available.