FAU’s Student Government Student Court issued a 72-hour Emergency Stay Order on Thursday, pausing all proceedings of the Boca Raton House of Representatives and delaying certification of election results until Oct. 7.

The response comes after former Boca Campus Governor Raymond Adderly filed a petition against Student Body Vice President Kade Salzer, following the release of the results from the fall 2025 Student Government legislative elections. The University Press reached out to Adderly, but he didn’t provide a statement in time for publication.

SG Chief Justice Hailey Lobsinger issued the emergency stay to give the court time to review Adderly’s claim that some of his write-in votes were not fully counted, despite surpassing a declared candidate. This order causes the Boca House to shut down, canceling the meeting to elect speaker, speaker pro tempore, and other paid positions and halting voting on other business matters.

In his petition, Adderly requests that all write-in votes be counted and that he be granted a seat in the Boca House of Representatives. Of the 53 votes he received, 27 were initially disregarded because voters failed to check the box confirming a write-in, despite having written his name.

FAU Assistant Director of Student Government Advising and Operations Andrew Moreira confirmed the dispute in an Oct. 2 email, noting the main focus was a seat in the Boca House of Representatives, which currently belongs to Jaime Guiffre.

“Raymond Adderly contested Jaime’s 50 votes to Raymond’s 53 write-in votes, but only 26 of the 53 votes also had the ‘Write-In’ box checked off,” Moreira said. He added that, due to the lack of clear guidance on write-in ballots, Salzer certified the unofficial results as they stood before the Student Court issued the emergency stay for judicial review.

With the emergency stay in effect, the House meeting scheduled for Friday, leadership elections, budget approvals, and other planned actions cannot move forward. Representative Nick Special said the stay immediately disrupts the House’s ability to conduct business.

“We were supposed to elect the speaker, speaker pro tempore, and the CBAC chair, which is Campus Budgetary Allocation,” Special said. “That means we cannot approve a new budget for the next fiscal year, and the deadline to approve a new budget is drawing near. This delays all the work we’re going to try and do, which is, to my knowledge, eight pieces of legislation.”

According to the petition, Salzer originally ruled that all votes should fully count during the Sept. 29 contestation and election certification meeting. Salzer was in agreement with Adderly’s interpretation and indicated he was willing to certify the write-in candidate’s victory.

However, after discussions with members in the executive branch, he reversed course, citing statutory uncertainty and leaving the decision to the Student Court.

Adderly argued in his petition that the election system should count all of his write-in votes, even if voters neglected to check the confirmation box. He compared FAU’s process to real U.S. elections, where a write-in candidate who secures the most votes would still be declared the winner. Excluding those ballots, he wrote in his petition, undermines the “self-evident will of the electorate.”

Adderly also cited precedent from a Jan. 6 Student Court ruling, which addressed unresolved questions concerning SG parties. In that case, the court chose to allow party and candidate participation in the absence of clear constitutional or statutory guidance. Adderly argued in the petition that the same principle should apply to his situation, since FAU’s statutes are also absent on the role of write-in ballots.

Jada Strayer is the Political Reporter for the University Press. Email her at jstrayer2023@fau.edu or contact her on Instagram @jadastrayer for information regarding this or other stories.