Precise wording in the Associated Students of San Diego Mesa College Constitution and bylaws prevent a presidential nominee and a constitutional amendment from appearing on the Sept. 29 ballot.

No presidential nominee will appear on the ballot this semester. Sen. Somiyah Waleh was disqualified for not renewing her AS membership before the application to run was due.

The Student Judicial Review Board (SJRB), which interprets the constitution, ruled that Sen. Sebastian Law, running unopposed for vice president, will fill the position of president. “Personally,” Waleh comments, “I would prefer having a president placed by voters.” The Student Senate Representative will, in turn, take the office of vice president.

An amendment to redefine a simple majority as the greatest number of votes was submitted to be placed on the ballot. “If that does not pass, we face not being able to effectively place an executive forward,” SJRB Justice Brande Faris says. “I want students to really consider why we want to change the constitution.”

Acting President Charlette Lin was appointed out of the previous presidential cabinet by Ashanti Hands, the Dean of Student Affairs. Of the three candidates that ran last election no one took office because they failed to accumulate a simple majority of the student votes, defined in Article VI, Section II, Clause c. of the constitution as “fifty percent [of voting students] plus one.” Faris says, “This needs to go to the student body so they can decide if it makes sense.”

The SJRB ruled that the initiative had missed deadline, although it had originally been turned in before the two weeks prior limit, Waleh explains, “because the amendment was not in the form of a question.”

“It’s that kind of bureaucracy I want to eliminate,” Law says.

One vice president, one treasurer and eleven senators are running for office. “We have never filled our [fifteen] senator positions,” says Lin. Students can vote online at http://www.sdmesa.edu through Oct. 3. Special elections, including the proposed amendment, are planned for sometime later in the semester.