An ASUCR Judicial Council meeting was held on Friday, May 3 to hear appeals from then-candidates Julian Gonzalez, Lennin Kuri, Isaiah Kim and Luis Huerta in regard to alleged campaign violations which could potentially result in disqualification. The meeting, while open to the public, was closed at times for deliberation. While all of the details concerning violations are not currently known, the items discussed during the meeting generally revolved around various campaign poster placement and approval violations.
Gonzalez, president pro-tempore of the Senate, won the position of ASUCR president. With regard to the campaign violations, during the meeting he stated, “The elections committee’s complete failure to abide by the elections code resulted in my inability to remedy the violations when I had the chance, resulting in more strikes than I deserved.” While his and others appeals focused on the lack of timeliness with which they were notified of the violations, there is no specified time frame for candidate notification in the ASCUR Elections Code.
Speaking about the campaign violations in an interview with the Highlander, ASUCR Elections Director Laura Pullen stated, “Those strikes that those candidates got could affect the official election results, but those will be announced by the judicial council at Wednesday’s ASUCR meeting.”
At this point no results are known from the judicial council hearings. With regard to the next steps in this process Pullen stated, “After they announce the results, we’ll probably send out special election information and people can sign up for the marketing director position and the elections director position.”
Pullen also noted that disqualified candidates are able to run in special elections, although the elections committee may seek changes to that within the elections code next year.
Another appeals hearing is slated to be held this upcoming Tuesday, May 7 in HUB 221 at 8:30 p.m. More information is forthcoming.
