Seniors Lacy Talley and Zach Davis were crowned Homecoming Queen and King Saturday, but by Monday the win was tainted by controversy.

Since last week, there had been whispers about if students were using other Mustang ID-numbers to increase the amount of votes for certain candidates.

“Obviously it would be very concerning for a student giving out information, where people would have access to their M-number and password,” said Keith Lamb, vice president of student affairs and enrollment management.

But it is possible, he said.

Renee DuBois, mass communication senior and Gamma Phi Beta alumna, started to raise awareness about the number swapping.

DuBois was on the ballot for Homecoming Queen.

“People were just talking to me about it, ‘Hey, have you heard, these people are getting M-numbers,’” she said. “Then I was concerned. I thought winning was a matter of fact that (Sigma Kappa) were cheating, because this was even before we knew who won or not.”

Talley, a Sigma Kappa, won the election with a total of 254 votes, 104 more than her runner-up.

Talley refused to comment on the situation.

“Unfortunately I’m not allowed to do interviews per our national policy without a national representative,” she said.

Alyssa Parham, MSU Sigma Kappa president, also declined to give a statement.

The Sigma Kappa headquarters refused to give an official statement regarding the incident or to show the policy Talley referred to.

Members of the Sigma Kappa sorority won every other category, from freshman princess to senior duchess. Voting participation ranged from 111 votes to 586 per category. Overall 616 students, 10.42 percent of students enrolled, voted in the election.

“Not only is it crap that they cheated, but also it’s really fishy, how only Sigma Kappas won the ballot,“ DuBois, also MSU 2 Campus Watch producer, said.

DuBois said she talked to Michael Mills, Student Government Association adviser, about the issue on Tuesday. Mills said if voter fraud was in fact committed, a formal protest would have had to be filed in accordance to the SGA bylaws.

Finding evidence proved to be difficult, Dubois said. She spent hours on her phone, talking to people across campus, to see if anyone had something she could show.

“One person had a text message, and she was like ‘Lacy Talley is my really good friend and I don’t want to get my name in trouble for giving you the text message,’” DuBois said. She offered to submit the message anonymously, but the evidence was deleted shortly after the conversation.

A text message was turned into Mills later that week, but the message did not reveal specific details.

“It did not identify who they were recruiting for and it didn’t even say ‘Hey I’m going to vote for the homecoming election.’ It just said ‘Hey, what’s your M-number?,’” Mills said.

However, the Wichitan obtained the questioned text message, sent Oct. 8 at 1:15 p.m., which states, “Can I have your M-numbers so I can vote for homecoming.”

After receiving that evidence, Mills said he contacted DuBois and asked her if she wanted to file a formal protest. She declined, he said. DuBois, however, said she had been under the impression it was already too late to file the protest.

The SGA bylaws state that a protest has to be made in writing by 5 p.m. on the next school day following the election. It is not clear if that means after the election closes or after the results are announced.

“Without a formal protest, that was pretty much the end of the discussion,” Mills said.

SGA President Anthony Gallina said he heard about rumors, but chose not to be involved since he was part of the elections and did not want to be accused of favoring anyone.

A different student, who wishes to remain anonymous, confirmed that text messages did exist and had been sent to students.

Another source, which also wishes to remain anonymous, stated that women from the Sigma Kappa sorority were asking people in classes for M-numbers and saving them to their phones.

“If there is evidence of wrongdoing, an appeal should be filed with the Elections Board,” Lamb said.

The situation turned into a social battlefield via Facebook. DuBois posted a status about the alleged cheating right after the homecoming game. The status received more than 90 likes and several comments, both positive and negative.

Unrelated to this controversy, Mills said the voting system will be updated in the fall of 2013. Elections and student voting will take place behind the university portal system, more than likely through OrgSync, Mills said.

“The portal will involve more personal information about each student, so in turn, if someone asks for a students log-in information for the portal system, there is a significantly less chance that they will give that number out,” Gallina said.