Victory in defeat

While the Student Association office was packed Thursday night with the Student Alliance, S.L.I.C.E. Party, independent candidates and supportive students, Jordan Fried waited patiently in his home for a call with the election results.
On his 21st birthday, the ONE Party presidential candidate and current SA treasurer was surrounded by family, friends and fellow candidates Amanda Jonas and Jennifer Harb.
"The reason we [were] at my house is because Passover is next week, my family is in town and [Thursday was] my birthday," Fried said.
Refusing to watch the results on The Spectrum's live feed, Fried received news that the Student Alliance had won the majority of positions for the upcoming year, with the exception of Jonas's victory as a SUNY delegate.
Fried addressed the outcome of the election as a victory.
"I'm still calling this a victory party," Fried said. "I don't feel that we lost. We tried our best; we got our message out there. It was a tough election … but we have the results and there's not too much to be upset about if this is what the students wanted."
While Fried seemed at ease with the results, Jonas, who gained the only victory for the ONE Party, was indecisive as to how to handle her victory in the wake of her friends' losses.
"It's an honor that I was elected, but it's my firm belief that I ran with this party and I ran because of these [ONE Party] candidates," Jonas said.
Jonas felt that the decisions made by the Student-Wide Judiciary during the election process were unfair and could have been more impartial.
"The nature of the election disinterested me from the position," Jonas said as she considered whether or not she would accept the SUNY delegate position.
Election week was overwhelmingly filled with allegations against the ONE Party. The party was reprimanded for allegedly leaving out necessary information from its preliminary expenditure report and utilizing SA resources by using images of SA materials in campaign material. Jonas, who was seeking re-election, was also accused of bribery.
The penalties decided upon by the SWJ resulted in suspension of the ONE Party's campaigning in the Student Union for a total of eight hours over Wednesday and Thursday.
"I don't want to get too much into allegations about us or the other party, but there were some issues that didn't go the right way during the election," Fried said. "While I commend Josh Boston [chairman of the Elections and Credentials Committee] for his ambitious effort for election reform, it was definitely a step in the right direction, but it wasn't the right time for it. They jumped first without building their parachute."
In previous years, punishment policies were limited to candidates being sentenced to community service hours after the election had ended.
Fried also addressed the punishment that the Student Alliance received after admitting to overspending on the allotted campaign funds. Student Alliance was not allowed to campaign in the Student Union from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday.
"There are a lot of biases that need to be addressed [that occurred during the election], including time biases for what was allotted for floor time [for campaigning in the Student Union]," Fried said.
Despite disappointment over the election results, Fried seemed ready to put the election behind him and celebrate his birthday with family and friends.
"I'm sure [the loss] will hit me when I'm cleaning out my office at the end of the year and not coming back next year," Fried said. "However, I'm still a student at UB and I still love UB."

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