ASSC election committee throws out recent election
John Glidden, Staff Writer
May 14, 2012
Filed under News, Politics
In a 4-0 decision, the Associated Students of Solano College (ASSC) student government election committee voted Friday, May 11 to vacate the recent results of the student elections.
“I move that we disqualify the existing results of the 2012 student government results,” said James Vaughn, member of the student government election committee and vocational curriculum senator in the student government.
The motion was seconded by Geff Freire, member of the election committee, and public relations officer of student government.
“I recommend that we disqualify these results,” said Naser Baig, chair of the 2012 ASSC student government election committee, after the motion to disqualify the results passed. “We all really worked hard [on the election committee].”
Vaughn, Freire, Baig, and Davis Mark Martinez, current ASSC academic curriculum senator, all voted ‘yes’ to throw out the recent election results.
“I’m disappointed that we didn’t get all the information before hand,” said Vaughn after the vote.
At the May 8, ASSC student government meeting, David Brannen, current Vallejo center community service officer, and co-advisor to the Phi Theta Kappa honor society, advocated that the ASSC student government throw out the recent election results due to a low student voter turn-out and mistakes made by the election committee.
Brannen suggested that the ASSC student government, after tossing out the recent election results, could establish a ‘select interim committee.’ ASSC bylaws state that when the ASSC student government fails to elect a president/vice-president during the spring semester, five students (as the select interim committee) will be installed by the ASSC student government.
These five students are tasked with conducting a student election during the following fall semester to elect a president, vice-president, student trustee, and legislative advocate.
At a subsequent election committee meeting, held on May 14, the same membership voted to approve an election calendar for the fall semester.
In addition, the election committee voted to reject all of their proposed meeting minutes, except for the meeting minutes of May 11, due to multiple errors committed by the committee throughout the election.
The ASSC student government has two options: it can consider following the recommendation of the election committee and throw out the results or it can overturn the election committee and ratify the election results.
The ASSC student government has scheduled two meetings for Tuesday, May 15 to address the election issue. One meeting is scheduled for noon in room 1421 on the main campus. The election committee will present to the student government the amended election calendar the committee approved on May 14.
The second ASSC student government meeting, scheduled for 12:30 in room 1421, will allow the student government to either accept or deny the recent election results.
Only about 50 ballots were used in the election. Low student voter turn-out and mistakes made by the election committee prompted the ASSC to toss out recent election results..
