Spring Break
Irregularities plague vote for SGA executive board
Issue date: 4/17/08
Five of the nine candidates running for positions on the Student Government Association (SGA) executive board have allegedly broken election rules, stalling an official announcement of the winners until an appeals process ends Friday.
It appears that some, if not all, of the contested positions will go to candidates who did not win the popular vote.
According to the Committee on Student Elections' (CSE) guidelines, all of the alleged infractions should lead to disqualification from the race.
Although these disqualifications can be overturned by an appeals board, preliminary results show that freshman Dan Teran should be president, sophomore Evan Lazerowitz should be vice president, sophomore Yasin Akbari should be treasurer and sophomore Tim Miller should be secretary for the 2008-2009 academic year.
Presidential candidate Sonny Chandrasekhar, a junior, won the popular vote, but his infractions will likely disqualify him.
Four of the candidates were cited for failure to turn in their campaign finance report properly or within the allotted time period, while Chandrasekhar was cited for unlawfully soliciting votes for himself and his running mate during the elections period.
According to CSE, candidates are not allowed to solicit votes once the voting has begun. Early in the voting period, Presidential candidate Chandrasekhar sent an e-mail to members of his fraternity asking for their votes.
"I did in fact send out an e-mail to my fraternity. I misinterpreted the rules - I told them to vote for me after the appropriate time," Chandrasekhar said.
"There is an investigation into this. It was a violation of campaign rules, and the effect of that on the election will be determined," he added.
Various anonymous sources involved in the election have confirmed that until Chandrasekhar was disqualified, he was winning the election by popular vote.
"This isn't how I wanted the elections to turn out, but I do feel that the explicit nature of [Chandrasekhar's] e-mail was the deciding factor in the elections," Teran said.
It appears that some, if not all, of the contested positions will go to candidates who did not win the popular vote.
According to the Committee on Student Elections' (CSE) guidelines, all of the alleged infractions should lead to disqualification from the race.
Although these disqualifications can be overturned by an appeals board, preliminary results show that freshman Dan Teran should be president, sophomore Evan Lazerowitz should be vice president, sophomore Yasin Akbari should be treasurer and sophomore Tim Miller should be secretary for the 2008-2009 academic year.
Presidential candidate Sonny Chandrasekhar, a junior, won the popular vote, but his infractions will likely disqualify him.
Four of the candidates were cited for failure to turn in their campaign finance report properly or within the allotted time period, while Chandrasekhar was cited for unlawfully soliciting votes for himself and his running mate during the elections period.
According to CSE, candidates are not allowed to solicit votes once the voting has begun. Early in the voting period, Presidential candidate Chandrasekhar sent an e-mail to members of his fraternity asking for their votes.
"I did in fact send out an e-mail to my fraternity. I misinterpreted the rules - I told them to vote for me after the appropriate time," Chandrasekhar said.
"There is an investigation into this. It was a violation of campaign rules, and the effect of that on the election will be determined," he added.
Various anonymous sources involved in the election have confirmed that until Chandrasekhar was disqualified, he was winning the election by popular vote.
"This isn't how I wanted the elections to turn out, but I do feel that the explicit nature of [Chandrasekhar's] e-mail was the deciding factor in the elections," Teran said.
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