The Joint Elections Commission will merge its three committees back into one ahead of this year’s Student Government Association elections, less than a year after the governing body implemented the change.

Michael Ubis, the chair of the JEC, said the SGA Senate passed legislation last February to transform the JEC into an independent regulatory agency separate from the SGA to address concerns about the JEC both passing and enforcing election regulations. This new legislation split the JEC into three branches and required the body to recruit more members, which Ubis said complicated the election process and prompted the JEC to revert back to its previous structure.

Ubis said last year’s legislation split up the JEC’s responsibilities into three parts, with one section running the election, another enforcing laws and a third handling legal disputes. He said this structure “did not make sense” in practice during last year’s election because committee members struggled to coordinate with all three branches. This year, Ubis said the JEC will return to its structure from 2022 of a single committee with five confirmed members, including a chair and chief investigator.

“We found that that wasn’t really an efficient use of time, resources or energy, and it didn’t really add due process in any meaningful way,” Ubis said.

Ubis said another reason why the JEC’s three branches did not work was because the new structure boosted the number of commission members from five to eight, which complicated processes. He said a return to the previous structure will allow commissioners to organize and administer elections “more cohesively” because the five members will be able to work together rather than delegate different tasks to each branch.

“I think this is just going to speed it up and make it clear and reduce the unnecessary head count that may have existed,” Ubis said.

Ubis said last year’s restructuring forced the JEC to push the SGA election from March to April because the commission halted operations during its restructuring.

Ubis said the JEC is considering holding the SGA elections during the last two days of March and the first two weeks of April after deliberating on the proposed election rules. The annual rules the JEC administers create guidelines for sanctioned election events, authorized agents and permitted campus campaign zones, according to the JEC website.

“​​We intend to hold our election, as the bylaws require, after spring break, but before the end of March,” Ubis said. “However, we are getting the feedback that people want to have later, and if that’s the case, I personally don’t foresee an issue with that.”

Ubis said the JEC is working to make election regulations more clear and accessible for candidates by establishing a “Code of Regulations,” which would provide candidates with a single document of election rules to ease campaigning processes. He said the document would consolidate the JEC bylaws and adopted rules, which are currently outlined in two separate documents.

“This is going to make it easier for candidates and voters to see what is permitted and what is prohibited in the elections process,” Ubis said.

Ubis said the JEC is also integrating plea deals with candidates, a system which will allow candidates to plead guilty to violations and acquire penalty points rather than undergoing the entire elections violation hearing process. He said last year Edward Kemelmakher, who served as the chief investigator to the JEC last year, reached the first plea deal in JEC history with presidential candidate Dan Saleem following a quartet of campaign violations.

Kemelmakher said the introduction of plea deals into the JEC bylaws, which the SGA amended at a January senate meeting, will reduce the frequency of violation hearings and streamline the overall election process this year. He said last year’s violations caused the JEC to consider postponing the election even further into April.

“The fact that we could just plead candidates down and not spend so much time dealing with drama and dealing with all the mess that comes with violations hearings is going to be really important for keeping things on track,” Kemelmakher said.