ASASUD announced junior Christian Vasquez and freshman Jessica Abercrombie will serve as 2010-2011 ASASUD president and vice president Thursday morning at the US Post Office.
Presidential and vice presidential freshmen candidates Andres Cano and Vaughn Hillyard received 453 votes, nearly 59 percent of the vote, while Vasquez/Abercrombie received 321 votes, more than 41 percent, said Olga Lykhvar, ASASUD director of administration, in a video message. ASASUD’s website says Cano/Hillyard received 454 votes.
According to an e-mail received early this morning by Cano and forwarded to the Downtown Devil, he and Hillyard were notified of their disqualification by the ASASUD Elections Committee after accumulating 10 penalty points from four code violations. Candidates are disqualified after receiving nine or more penalty points, according to the ASASUD Election Code.
The email from the ASASUD Elections Committee said a message posted on the “Vote Andres & Vaughn for ASASUD!” Facebook group had been posted without the committee’s approval.
“The Election Committee only approved the REVISED version of this message, correcting the incorrect information that Sabrina Banegas is running for College of Public Programs when she is actually running for College of Nursing and Health Innovation,” the email said.
Cano said he thinks the violation his campaign received was unfair and he and his running-mate will move forward with an appeal process.
“Downtown students overwhelmingly voted in favor of our candidacy this week,” he said. “I think that’s a message we’re going to have to keep on sending. To not have us in office, I think, would be a disgrace to those who voted in the elections.”
It is also unclear if Vasquez and Abercrombie can assume the presidential and vice presidential offices, according to the ASASUD Election Code.
“6.2. If during the general election no one ticket receives at least fifty-one percent of the votes there will be a mandatory run-off election,” the code states.
While Vasquez/Abercrombie received more than 41 percent of the vote, at least one ticket, Cano/Hillyard, did receive more than 51 percent of the votes.
Contact the reporter at salvador.rodriguez@asu.edu
