Tobi Soyebo was named SGA VP of Budget & Finance during the election results event on April 13 despite being reprimanded for his misleading campaign poster, according to Nyomi Haynes, SGA Election Commission’s chairperson.
The campaign poster broadcasted on Soyebo’s social media page claimed that he had experience handling over $3 million in budget based on SGA’s budget committee, student activity fee and diversity fee.
Haynes said the board conducted hearings and investigations with Soyebo, resulting in reprimands.
However, she said she will not disclose the details of the consequences although there are no rules preventing her from doing so.
“There is currently no specific rule. However, it is in our power and up to our discretion whether or not we choose to share that information with people outside of the board and the candidate,” she said. “And we decided for the sake of discussion we rather not especially since it it was a simple infraction.”
Haynes said the SGA election commission strives to be transparent with the public, and the commission will continue deciding what information will be shared with the public.
“But again, unless we were going to remove the candidate from the ballot, and they did something of serious consequence, it is up to that commission’s discretion,” she said.
For this election season, SGA candidates did not have to seek approval for materials before posting campaign materials, but a forum was created where candidates could submit materials, according to Haynes.
Starting next election season, she said all materials will need to be approved before being viewed by the public due to changes to the bylines, which was proposed around March.
Georgia State senior Kristen French said she thinks there should be an approval system for election campaign posters being presented to the public.
“There should be a way to make sure that all that stuff is factual,” she said. “Assuming that elections is important, somebody spouting things that aren’t true could affect everything.”
She also said people not involved in student government could be misled by unfactual campaign materials.
“As a student in college and stuff you are supposed to be critically thinking about your own opinions about things and take everything by a grain of salt and do your own research on it,” she said. “But if someone has a poster that looks professional then, yeah of course.”
The poster has since been deleted from Soyebo’s social media page. Soyebo declined to provide a comment in regards to his campaign poster, but he said he understands he made an error.
“You can simply put it as I made a mistake, and I am now I am taking responsibility for my actions,” he said.
Soyebo also said he feels like he was a qualified candidate and was excited to run. With his new position, he said he wants to ensure that he accomplishes his platform’s goals.
“I did my due diligence with campaigning, and I am proud that my Georgia State students chose me,” he said. “[I will be] making sure there are more organizations applying for cosponsorships. Also, I would like to make sure there is a smarter way to track expenditures to just make sure that you actually see the impact of every dollar that’s being spent.”
