Former District 4 contender and SGA president Aaron Nicely did not file a petition contesting the actual number of student voters as of the Oct. 8 deadline, Clerk of Superior Courts Sherri Aikens said.

Nicely, who alleged that 968 student voters were turned away from the city council election polls last Tuesday, had announced plans last Wednesday to comprise a list of those students who were turned away and file that petition with the Clerk of Superior Courts. If that number were to exceed the difference between Nicely's votes and District 4 winner Joe Brannen's votes, Nicely said he planned to contest the count.

State law details that a petition must be received within five days of the date that the returns from the election are consolidated, city clerk Judy McCorkle said. The returns were consolidated, that is, the paperwork was filed with the Secretary of State and the Superior courts, at 10 a.m. on the Wednesday following the election, McCorkle said.

Nicely stated that he could not get the affidavits signed in time.

"The people that I needed to get in touch with to sign the actual affidavit, as far as getting their names on that sheet of paper as of noon Saturday, were not available," Nicely said. "Dropping the ball on this, per se, is not something that I wanted to do. It's kind of hard to convince everybody that these [968] people exist."

Nicely still said that the person monitoring the polls produced an accurate count of the number of student voters turned away from the polls, though the name of the person who took the count remains unknown.

Future plans have been made by Nicely to make sure students are properly registered to vote, and that students register in advance, so questions that come up can be answered before registration deadlines, Nicely said. Nicely said he still plans to take an active role on the city council.

"My plans are to still be at the city council meetings myself to voice the concerns of the students," Nicely said. "If I'm not able to be there then somebody from SGA will be there." Nicely also expressed his regret that, for whatever reason, students weren't able to vote.

Originally published in The George-Anne, Georgia Southern University's student newspaper, November 10, 1999.