This year’s Associated Students election exploded with controversy in the executive vice president for external affairs race. Incumbent Ricardo Miranda won the race after an onslaught of grievances led to the disqualification of his opponents Kaleb Truchan and Aydin Yelkovan. In the week following, Truchan and Yelkovan have publicly contested the unfairness of the grievance process that led to their loss of eligibility. 

On April 14, Yelkovan gave formal notice of intent to sue in a letter to the University of California Board of Regents, UC San Diego, and the relevant administrators overseeing A.S. 

“I was illegally disqualified over protected speech,” Yelkovan said. “This case is about defending every student’s right to free speech and ensuring that no entity within the University is allowed to use unconstitutional policies to undermine the voice and vote of the students.”

The A.S. elections code, ratified last December, states that candidates are disqualified after they are found guilty of three grievances. Grievance complaints may be filed by any undergraduate and brought before a student-run electoral commission, which rules on each complaint within 72 hours of filing. The commission determines the verdict and issues sanctions like verbal and formal warnings. When a candidate receives three formal warnings, they are automatically disqualified from the election. 

The election manager oversees the electoral commission, which includes elections representatives from each of the eight colleges. Electoral commission decisions can be appealed to the A.S. Judicial Board, though the elections code does not indicate a time frame for the Judicial Board’s rulings.

During the weeklong campaign cycle, 37 grievance cases were filed: nine against Truchan, seven against Yelkovan, and seven against Miranda. All seven of Miranda’s cases were dismissed, withdrawn, or found not guilty. 

Both Truchan and Yelkovan told The UCSD Guardian that the elections code is structurally flawed, the electoral commission unfairly applied the elections code, and the grievance filing system was weaponized against them. Truchan alleged the electoral commission ruled unfairly on his grievance cases and that he did not have the proper time or opportunity to appeal. Yelkovan claimed the commission’s rulings in his grievance cases limited student organizations’ ability to speak freely, thereby violating their First Amendment rights. 

According to the raw ballot count in the official election results, Truchan received 2,092 votes, 37% of the vote share, with Yelkovan in second, receiving 1,892 votes, which amounted to 34% of the vote share. Miranda received 1,529 votes — around 27% of the vote share. As A.S. utilized ranked-choice voting for this race, the lack of a simple majority triggered a second round. Truchan and Yelkovan were disqualified on Friday evening following the end of the polling period, and in round two, Miranda automatically collected 100% of the vote share. A.S. election manager Aries Cole declared Miranda the winner later that day.

Grievances are filed through the A.S. Complaint Portal, but some information — including the complainant, respondent, and supporting evidence — is publicly available. The A.S. Election Grievances Tracker documents the details of claims filed against candidates. Voting opened on April 6 at 10 a.m. and closed on April 10 at 4 p.m. The campaign period opened on March 29.

Truchan

Truchan received formal warnings for cases 2, 4, and 36 and received a verbal warning for case 35. 

“I can acknowledge the fact that I was found guilty of the elections code based on the interpretations of the elections committee,” Truchan said to The Guardian. “However, Aydin and I were under disproportionate scrutiny compared to any other candidate, especially Ricardo. [I] invite students to read the grievances for themselves.” 

Miranda filed case 2 for the caption of a March 15 post on Truchan’s personal Instagram account that read, “On a presidential run #SaveMakerspace #24hourGeisel #24hourMarkets.” In his complaint, Miranda described the “clear campaign post” as a violation of elections code Section 42(d), which prohibits campaign activities outside of the designated campaign period — Week 1 and 2 of Spring Quarter. The electoral commission ruled with Miranda, issuing Truchan a formal warning on April 4 and ordering him to take the post down. 

Jack Derby, an off-campus senator, filed case 4 against the same Truchan Instagram account referenced in case 2. Derby said the account violates elections code Section 15(1), which states that social media accounts used for campaigning must be registered with the election manager within 24 hours of creation. Derby alleged that Truchan campaigned using a preexisting social media account; however, the complaint does not cite physical evidence of said campaigning on that account. The electoral commission issued Truchan his second formal warning on April 6.

Anvi Sapra, a Warren College Student Council member, filed case 36 on April 10, the last day of the election, alleging in a two-page complaint that Truchan’s same March 15 post from case 2 also violates four additional elections code sections. The electoral commission ruled on the case that day, within three hours of the polls closing. It found Truchan in violation of Section 43(b), which prohibits the use of A.S. resources for campaigns, disqualifying his candidacy. The complaint outlined the following logic: “by using the AS logo as a marketing tool, Truchan avoids the [candidate spending] limit entirely. In effect, he has spent many thousands of dollars on his marketing campaign.”

Truchan said that he had to sit through 20 to 25 hours of hearings to address the numerous complaints. 

“It’s major harassment because they’re preventing us from doing normal things,” Truchan said. “I don’t have enough time to do my other jobs because I’m sitting on Zoom, trying to fight for my right to be elected.” 

Truchan further alleged that he was “flat out not given the opportunity to appeal for the last two, and [complications] with the first appeal made it impossible for a hearing to occur.” 

Yelkovan   

Yelkovan’s cases were more varied. Of the seven cases against him, Yelkovan received formal warnings for cases 13, 24, and 27. Two of these cases involved multiple candidates.

Kristen Ramirez, a Student Council ERC member, filed case 13 against Yelkovan and three other candidates. The complaint cited candidates reposting the Instagram voter guides of three different organizations, arguing that reposting voter guides constitutes supporting other candidates. The electoral commission agreed, finding all four guilty of violating elections code Section 15(2)(b), which prohibits collaboration among candidates. 

Yelkovan reposted a voter guide from Students for Justice in Palestine San Diego. Miranda was pictured reposting the Association of Muslims in Politics and Law’s voter guide alongside William Simpson and Moazzma Chaudhary, both of whom the complaint named. Miranda was the only candidate pictured in one of the three screenshots who Ramirez did not include in her complaint. 

In case 24, Ryan Coryea, the current chief of staff for the office of the A.S. president, filed a complaint against Yelkovan for his Instagram post on @voteaydin that featured California lieutenant governor candidate Oliver Ma standing with Yelkovan. The caption read, “Oliver For Lieutenant Governor x Aydin for External VP.” 

Coryea cited this as a violation of Section 39 and Section 44(a) of the elections code. Section 39 prohibits endorsements by individual ineligible voters and 44(a) requires campaigns to be carried out in a “civil, decent, and respectful manner.” Though the commission did not find the offending post to be an endorsement, it found the post to misleadingly present itself as an endorsement; it ruled that Yelkovan violated 44(a) and issued him a second formal warning.

Case 27 alleged another violation of 44(a) and involved three candidates in addition to Yelkovan. Though filed by Derby, the complaint noted, “This grievance is being made on behalf of a candidate who wishes to recuse themself from the discussion in order to maintain a fair and factual hearing.” 

The complaint stated, “The date/time of the alleged violation varies for each candidate.” Yelkovan provided further context. When student organizations sign a preendorsement agreement with individual candidates, candidates assume responsibility for any election code violations the organization commits during the campaign period. On April 8, the Blind Snakes Co-operative’s Instagram account commented on one of A.S. presidential candidate Mina Nguyen’s posts criticizing her for neglecting disabled voices. 

The comment read: “We appreciate you ‘owning’ that you haven’t shown up loudly for disabled students in the past. However, leadership isn’t a toggle switch. If the commitment was there, why was our community’s name missing from your platform and debate responses until now? We need a leader who mentions us because they value us, not because they’re prompted to.”

As Blind Snakes had preendorsed Yelkovan and its comment was ruled to violate 44(a), the electoral commission found Yelkovan and the other named candidates guilty. Yelkovan’s follow-up appeal to the Judicial Board was dismissed at 6:30 p.m.

Yelkovan echoed Truchan’s difficulties with the hearings and appeal process. 

“[The Judicial Board] emailed me when I was just getting out of class at 3 p.m. and said, ‘You have 30 minutes to respond to schedule this because we’re on a tight turnaround.’”

The Guardian reached out to Cole for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication. This is an ongoing story, and The Guardian will publish updates as more information becomes available. 

CORRECTION: This article was revised to accurately name Ryan Coryea’s current position in A.S., correct the date the A.S. campaigning period began, and replace the brackets in Yelkovan’s final quote to “The Judicial Board.” The photo should have been credited to Rafi Permadi.

Research assistance for this article was provided by Gabriel Lozano.