Photo illustration by David Tracey
Emma Carter (top left), Nicole Teague (top right), Alex Obiol (bottom left) and Lexie Malico (bottom right)
Update 9:00 p.m.: The Board of Elections sent out an email at 8:16 p.m. officially announcing the Carter-Teague ticket’s victory.
Original Story: Citing ethical concerns, Lexie Malico, a Ph.D. student in chemistry and former candidate for vice president, has withdrawn from the student body presidential-vice presidential race. As a result, Malico’s ticket with running mate Alex Obiol, a third-year studying textile engineering, has been invalidated, leaving only one ticket remaining in the race.
NC State’s Student Body President for the 99th Session of Student Government will be Emma Carter, a third-year studying sociology and international studies, and the Vice President, Nicole Teague, a third-year studying business administration.
Malico’s decision to withdraw from the race comes just two days after the Board of Elections decided to postpone announcing the results of the student body president and vice president election.
The Board of Elections released a statement later saying the postponement of the election results was, due to additional violations brought up affecting the presidential-vice presidential race, to allow the board more time to deliberate the results and follow the violations process per the Board of Elections handbook. However, now that a ticket has been withdrawn, a winner of the seats has been determined.
Over the course of campaigning, the Obiol-Malico ticket had 5* violations in total, including 2 warnings and 3* dismissals.
The first warning was issued on March 3 and was in regard to using university supplies, university logos and undue influence while campaigning. Obiol and Malico posted a campaign video with them interacting with Mr. and Ms. Wuf, implying a university endorsement. The majority opinion of the board decided that Obiol and Malico gained a significant advantage by these actions; the video, posted on Facebook and Instagram, gained over 3,500 views. Additionally, they received a warning for failing to provide expense reports on time.
The board also ruled in favor of dismissals involving official campaign start, setting up student organization visits, expensed materials, undue influence, using university supplies while campaigning and the misuse of Student Government facilities.
“My main reason for withdrawing is that I had some concerns about ethics and the way we ran our campaign,” Malico said. “We knowingly violated rules such as the utilization of SG property for campaigning.”
Malico said that at the violations hearings, she and Obiol knowingly lied to the Board of Elections about certain things, specifically citing the use of Student Government facilities to begin campaigning, a violation that was dismissed.
Malico said that because of her decision to withdraw from the race, the entire ticket is withdrawn.
It is still unclear what the results of the spring election votes were at the time the Board of Elections decided to postpone the election results on Tuesday, March 5.
“It was really an issue of I didn’t feel like our campaign had been ethical,” Malico said. “Even if we won, it would’ve brought forward questions of did we really earn it.”
While she had no comment in regard to whether she felt pressure from her running mate to purposely violate campaign rules, Malico said that there were some things that she consciously took part in.
“I think that there were some things that I knew about and was complicit in, and there were some things that I was not aware of,” Malico said. “And then there were some things that I was aware of and not aware of the severity of the violation [taking] place or that a violation took place until later.”
This was not the first time Malico brought concerns up, as she had previously spoken to Obiol about violation issues.
“I brought up some concerns previously, however I made the formal decision and informed [Obiol] this morning prior to informing the Board of Elections,” Malico said.
Looking to the future, Malico offered support to Emma Carter, a third-year studying sociology and international studies, and Nicole Teague, a third-year studying business administration, as student body president-elect and student body vice president-elect, respectively.
“I think Emma and Nicole will be excellent in the role of president and vice president, and I’m enthusiastic to see what they do regarding their platform,” Malico said
Malico said that while she wanted to serve the student body as student body vice president, she could not continue campaigning for the position ethically.
“I so deeply wanted to be student body vice president, but I think at the end of the day, ethically, I don’t think it ever would have sat well with me knowing the information that I have,” Malico said
Alex Obiol had no comment at this time.
Editor’s note: The number of violations has been corrected.