By Bailee Neyman
The University of Maryland Student Government Association hosted a legislative town hall and executive debate Thursday night for students to meet candidates ahead of the special election running Oct. 1 through Oct. 6.
The special election comes after both previous tickets, JusticeUMD and RollTerps, were disqualified from elections last spring. In the interim, SGA has been acting in a limited capacity while waiting for seats to be refilled following the special election.
This semester’s election does not feature either of the former tickets, but instead features six different tickets: Voice4All with 22 candidates, ReviveUMD with 21 candidates, TransformUMD with 10 candidates, The Vanguard Initiative with three candidates, People Not Politics with three candidates and Beyond the Shell with two candidates. Nine candidates are also running independently for legislature.
During both events, all candidates were allowed to give a short introduction before going into rounds of timed questioning.
At the end of the executive debate, the floor was opened for audience questions. Audience members were limited to questions directed at all candidates running for a specific position. Candidates had the option to pass, but none of the present candidates chose to.
Even after asking executive candidates to speak on the issue, SGA diversity, equity and inclusion director Amyah Wilson expressed concerns over SGA addressing members being doxed.
“We ask questions about privacy, but the biggest thing is protecting the students,” Wilson said. “I was a part of the students that were doxed last year [and] even [the] legislature admin or SGA admin didn’t make a statement on it.”
The incident took place last fall, when four UMD SGA members, including Wilson, had their information shared on X after passing a resolution condemning the university for allowing Israeli Defense Forces on campus.
Senior anthropology major Genesis Bonilla expressed some hope for SGA’s future despite the doxing issue.
“I do feel confident in some candidates,” Bonilla said. “I’m not going to say every candidate is going to be better than what happened last year, but I do see that we have potential.”
Outside of doxing, growing mistrust among SGA members was a common topic discussed among both legislative and executive candidates, especially in regard to the violations that happened during the spring election.
Election violations are handled by the elections commission. Election commissioner and senior government and politics and accounting double major Leonard Fomin shared that this cycle the committee is “trying to focus on education of all election rules.”
“Election rules are very complicated, more than 30 pages of them,” Fomin said. “We never penalize candidates or affiliates or anyone else involved for first asking whether something is wrong.”
Fomin shared that as of Thursday, the election commission had not yet received any major violations, but that the form will be open through Tuesday, Oct. 6.
Voting for SGA will remain open until 5 p.m. on Oct. 6. If no violations are reported, results are expected to be announced that week, with an official inauguration on Oct. 19.
Featured Image: Adam Sally, a of Behavioral and Social Sciences candidate, responds to a question at the town hall on Oct. 1, 2026, in the Adele H. Stamp Student Union. Photo by Paige Trendell.