Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly included the term “potential voter fraud.” ASSU Elections Commissioner Stephen Trusheim ’13 clarified today in an email to The Daily that the Senior Shore slate acted in accordance with ASSU Joint Bylaws and will remain on the ballot. Please see Trusheim’s email below.
A voting irregularity has emerged in the race for senior class president, which involves two slates, “Senior Citizen” and “Senior Shore.” Two members of Senior Shore dropped out of the race early this week, to be replaced by a single member, Grace Jones ’12.
The slate description on the ASSU ballot still lists Marie Caligiuri de Jesus ‘12 and Cody Sam ’12 as members running for election, contrary to the description on the ASSU voter guide, which only lists Jones, Adrian Castillo ’12 and Taylor Goodspeed ’12. Though the description that pops up on the right side of the online ballot screen does list Jones and leaves off Sam and Caligiuri, the listing of slate members directly above the drop-down box to vote has not been changed.
The discrepancies have raised several questions about the legality of the change per the ASSU’s rules for elections. Under those strictures, class president slates must have a minimum of four members to be viable, and the most recent version of Senior Shore only has three candidates.
A second concern is whether slates are allowed to change their membership after going through the petitions process, which is required to appear on the ballot for the ASSU general election. Class president slates must collect 100 signatures as a slate, but there is no known precedent for a slate trying to add and subtract members after its petition had been validated.
The decision to change the slate’s membership, and the legal justification for doing so, has not been publicized by ASSU Elections Commissioner Stephen Trusheim ’13. No messages concerning the change were sent out over the Elections Commission’s public mailing list or to the current junior class at large.
The results of the election will be announced at 5 p.m. on Saturday.
— Kabir Sawhney
Email from ASSU Elections Commissioner