An appeal of the A.S. Election Committee’s decision to disqualify the entire Students First! slate is in the works, according to Students First! presidential candidate Kevin Shawn Hsu and A.S. President Jenn Brown. A.S. Executive Assistant Tracy Phillips said she is expecting the appeal to be filed April 16, which is the last day to file against the decision.
An appeal would go to the A.S. Judicial Board, which consists of one representative from each college and two A.S. representatives. The board must meet within six days of the complaint to decide whether or not they have jurisdiction over the case.
“”My expectation is that there’s going to be a little more respect for procedure and actual facts,”” Kevin Shawn Hsu said. “”Hopefully we’ll find that there’s more justice in the judicial board than there was in the elections committee, and that they’ll hear the case and make the right decision.””
Students First! representatives declined to comment on the specifics of the appeal at press time.
If the decision is upheld, the new A.S. Council will go into office with many positions still empty, which will have to be appointed at a later time. Interviews would be held, open to students campuswide, before A.S. president-elect Jeremy Paul Gallagher makes recommendations subject to the new council’s approval. Disqualified candidates, according to A.S. Advisor Paul DeWine, have never been allowed to apply for the positions.
Gallagher said that he is confident that the new council will find candidates for the open positions, which include vice president external, commissioner of programming, commissioner of diversity affairs, commissioner of academic affairs, commissioner of communications and commissioner of student advocacy.
“”There’s a lot of qualified people on this campus who want to be involved, just not run in elections,”” Gallagher said, adding that he hoped to fill the vacancies as quickly as possible upon taking office.
Vacant senator positions will be filled in much the same process, with interviews and subsequent appointments, but with the individual colleges making all appointments. Senator positions that remain vacant include Revelle College junior senator, Thurgood Marshall College junior senator, Muir college junior senator and Warren college junior and sophomore senators. Two of these vacancies were caused by the Students First! slate disqualification.
The last disqualification of such magnitude at the executive level took place in 1994, when an elected president was taken to the judicial board in a case involving a violation of the elections bylaws regarding flyer distribution. Elections for the office of president were held a second time, with a different candidate winning the re-vote. In 1986, the elections were also run a second time after the elections manager declared the results invalid for a number of violations, including disenfranchisement of voters who were ineligible due the problems in the Central Cashier’s registration of fees.
