The Elections Commission will hold a meeting tonight at 7:30 p.m. to decide the fate of Jon Chichwak’s appeal against the election. If the Elections Commission approves Chichwak’s appeal, the office of Student Senate president could still be up for grabs.??The Elections Commission originally scheduled a meeting concerning the appeal for last Wednesday. However, since the meeting did not reach quorum, the appeal could not be discussed.

Brian Mathis, vice chair of the Elections Commission, said the statutes requires a meeting to discuss appeals the day after elections. He said the Elections Commission was not expecting Chichwak, a former Student Senate president candidate and a junior in political science, to file an appeal.

“We didn’t expect an appeal so we had to hold a quick meeting,” Mathis, a sophomore in business management, said.

According to Mathis, the Elections Commission decided to place Greg Doucette, who won the election, back on the ballot because Chichwak had not gotten the majority of votes in order to automatically win the office.

He said once Sara Yasin, a junior in textile and apparel management, withdrew her candidacy, Doucette and Chichwak were the top two candidates.

“At that time that’s what we felt would be the best option,” he said.

Doucette said a lot of commissioners had already left for Easter break.

“So they couldn’t get anything done [on Wednesday],” Doucette, a junior in computer science, said.

Drexel Heard, Chichwak’s campaign manager, said Chichwak filed the appeal because once he and Yasin were moved into the runoff election that should have been the final ballot — no one else should have been added later.

Heard is a former student at N.C. State. He was a junior in political science when he left NCSU a year ago to tour as an actor.

He said the Elections Commission should have reopened the books or kept Yasin on the ballot and she could have resigned if she had won.

“It has nothing to do with [Doucette] at all,” he said. “It’s all about the Elections Commission in general.”

Doucette said Drexel misunderstands the rules. He said Yasin dropped before the Elections Commission certified the ballot, therefore someone else could be added to it.

“Friday morning [is when Yasin] said ‘Hey, I don’t want to be in the runoff,'” Doucette said. “Friday night is when [the Elections Commission] approved the final ballot.”

According to Heard, it’s wrong to have someone who didn’t get voted in originally to continue in the runoff and eventually win the election.

“Kind of like American Idol, you don’t really bring someone back who received the least amount of votes,” Heard said.

Doucette said the Elections Commission has the ability to dismiss the appeal or even order a new election.

“They have the power to do pretty much anything,” he said.

Heard said regardless of the outcome of the situation, at least the issue was brought up.

“[The] only way we can kind of fix this problem so it doesn’t happen in the future is through an appeal,” he said.