Downtown election dilemma
While I greatly admired the hard work of the ASASU Downtown elections committee and had the privilege of moderating the debate between two passionate and qualified candidates, I’ve found the election aftermath disturbing. Did a campaign volunteer accidentally sending out a message on Facebook associating a Senate candidate who was supporting Cano-Hillyard with the wrong college constitute a violation worthy of a penalty, and, if so, a penalty worth disqualification?
Unfortunately, it appears the student government constitution lacks a proper process for independent review.
In the absence of that, the elections committee, though it stood by its decision, wisely recommended a third party review — that’s what the principles of due process and checks and balances call for. Unfortunately, rather than delegate independent review to another campus’ judicial branch, they allowed the default winner of the presidential contest to decide whether to allow one, a clear conflict of interest.
The rancor will continue to undermine student government and anything Christian Vasquez hopes to accomplish. He’ll be the selected, not the elected President. If there will be no independent review, Vasquez should publicly seek something we rarely see in politics; Cano and Hillyard as top executive committee appointments to create a leadership group that brings all sides together.
Dave Wells
Faculty
