After all the votes were counted on Friday, the end result showed that Southern Oregon does, indeed, wish to be “Ballin’ with Colin” in the upcoming school year. When Colin Davis and his Vice President Tyler Takeshita walked out of the election meeting late Friday afternoon with the other candidates where they were told that had garnered the most votes, the new president elect claimed to be awestruck.
However, a grievance was filed on Monday against the two by opposing candidates Emily Pfeiffer and Ricardo Lujan-Valerio. Allegedly, there were “Ballin’ with Colin” campaign cards strewn “strategically” on top of drinking fountains in the Stevenson Union. While anyone from end-of-the-world prophets to non-GMO activists are allowed to hand out pamphlets and promote 
in the walkways leading up to the SU, no political agendas are allowed to be pushed once inside the doors.
Davis claims that he and Tyler were the only ones handing out the cards and both were well aware that campaigning in the SU was against the rules. What they don’t know, is who put the cards there. “I respect them for filing the grievance and think that it’s fair,” Davis said, “but everyone hands out cards and you really don’t know where they are going to end up.” The hearing coming this Monday night with the election committee will decide if the placing the cards in the SU proved to give them an unfair advantage.
Despite the hanging grievance, only a few hours after learning that they had received the most votes, a video was posted on Davis’s twitter showing the two blasting champagne bottles to celebrate the victory.
Wearing a shirt displaying puppies in space and with hair past his shoulders, Davis, a defensive lineman on the SOU football team, said that his social media presence was an integral factor in the high number of votes. Two earlier videos posted, that were more political than the champagne campaign, feature Davis explaining the base of his platform. The views of these videos broke into the thousands and HQ pictures of athletes showing their support for the pair also populated Twitter last week.
In 2015, current president and vice, Torii Uyehara and Jane Silva, ran unopposed and laid claim to the office which comes with the final say in club fees, a total spending of over 4 million dollars.
The filing of the grievance, more candidates running and subsequently more students voting have made this year’s campus politics far more flavorful than last years. Also, a guy running for Clubs and Organizations Senator was verbally crucified at a public meeting for tweeting homophobic remarks about Kim Jong Un.
Pfeiffer and Lujan-Valerio were heavily endorsed by current ASSOU members to take over office but only received 39% of the votes, while Davis and Takeshita earned 44%. Pfeiffer and Lujan’s motto, “bridging the gap,” could be seen on t-shirts, written in sidewalk chalk and even printed on campaign condoms that were handed out during SOAR.
Not being supported by current ASSOU members was slightly disconcerting to Davis, but by reaching out to fellow athletes and tapping into different clubs, his message was ultimately, more widespread.
On Monday, the meeting with Tyler, Colin and the rest of the election committee will decide if his earned votes are just and when he can move forward with selecting a cabinet. For Davis though, the position of leadership appears to be won and other government members who don’t want to play ball, are for him, no longer a factor.
