Student Association Sen. Jeff Meyer filed a complaint Tuesday with the SA Supreme Court against fellow senators Frank Woodin, Andrew Nelms and John Acardo.

The complaint alleges Senate Speaker-elect Nelms “improperly claimed legitimacy to the office of senate speaker at the conclusion of an unlawful vote that equated to effective removal of [Meyer] from office.”

At the April 13 senate meeting, Meyer was elected senate speaker in a vote of 18-16 over Nelms.

At this Sunday’s senate meeting, Acardo, sitting as interim president pro tempore, said the April 13 vote was illegal. Two of the people who voted in the election should not have been able to.

Meyer’s claim is that he legally took office on April 22 when Woodin’s term as speaker expired. The only way to remove him from office would be by impeachment, resignation or failure to maintain the required grade point average, Meyer said.

Meyer also said that since none of the ballots from the April 13 election were kept, how can it be challenging whether or not the two senators actually voted.

Meyer said the senate approved the minutes from the April 13 meeting, which state that he was elected as senate speaker. Acardo had said Meyer was the speaker at the last senate meeting, according to Meyer’s claim.

Acardo told the Northern Star he stands by the ruling he made at the meeting.

“In the absence of our bylaws, and according to Robert’s Rules of Order, with any ballot that is ruled to be invalid, the whole vote is null and void,” Acardo said.

Acardo said Meyer never was speaker to begin with because of the ruling he made.

“The ruling was that it could have been a tie because of the evidence presented,” Acardo said.

Nelms, who the Senate voted as the speaker-elect on Sunday, said Meyer’s complaint isn’t valid because the body decided to take a revote.

“[Meyer] had no mandate from the body to be speaker,” Nelms said. “The Senate looked at that and agreed with that. I am standing by that and I feel that I am the speaker-elect based on the will of the body. I’ll be looking forward to what the [SA] Supreme Court has to say.”

Nelms said a hearing on the matter should happen by the end of the week.

At press time, the minutes from the April 13 meeting were not posted on the SA Web site. The Star was unable to reach Woodin at press time.