The ASASUD Judicial Board finalized the details of the upcoming special election Monday after several meetings with the Elections Committee.
The Judicial Board decided that all violations levied against candidates, as well as all previously approved campaign materials, will be carried over to the special election.
The election will be held April 14 and 15, and ASASUD is looking into hosting a voting event similar to the one held during last week’s election. Announcement of the results from the special election is scheduled for April 17.
At a meeting Monday night, the Judicial Board also reviewed presidential candidate Joseph Grossman’s appeal of one of his election code violations. The violation dealt with one of Grossman and running mate David Bakardjiev’s professors distributing an email to one of his classes.
While the Elections Committee approved the bulk of the email, the professor added a personal statement at the beginning, causing the Elections Committee to levy a campaign violation.
The Judicial Board decided to uphold the Election Committee’s decision unanimously.
Grossman also requested the elections numbers from the election on April 5 and 6, stating that they were public records and should be viewable by all students. He also asked for the complaint forms students filed about voting difficulties.
Director of Parliamentary Procedures Jose Rios Lua said, after council, it was decided neither the election results nor the complaints were public record. Other ASASUD members at the meeting said the ASASUD adviser, Cassandra Aska, said they were not public documents.
Grossman then said Dr. James Rund, senior vice president for education outreach, whom he spoke to earlier, said both records are in the public domain.
“I don’t care what they’re saying at this point because I know they’re public documents,” Grossman said.
It has yet to be announced whether the two write-in presidential candidates, Andres Cano and Diana Inzunza, will be placed on the ballot for the special election or if they will remain as write-ins.
Previously the Elections Committee decided that all candidates’ names would be placed on the ballot for the special election, but the Judicial Board is in the process of reviewing that decision.
Rios Lua said it is technologically possible to have a write-in area on the ballot and have directions on the ballot to better explain the write-in situation to avoid voter confusion.
However, the specificity of what write-in ballots the Elections Committee will count will remain the same. Voters must enter both the presidential and vice presidential candidates’ names.
If a voter simply writes the presidential candidate’s name, the vote will not count.
At the meeting late Monday night, the Judicial Board said there is an ASU policy stating the necessity of both write-in candidates’ names being written on the ballot for the vote to count.
A decision was made during last week’s election to count all ballots for write-ins that had clear voter intent, that is, they were counted even if only one of the candidates’ names were written.
“A decision was made to count votes that only have one name present, and there is no reason to change that ruling,” the write-in candidates wrote in a joint letter to the Elections Committee.
The two write-in executive tickets also requested the ASU policy that states write-in candidates must have both names present on the ballot for the vote to count.
Contact the reporter at connor.radnovich@asu.edu
