By Kortney Tenaglia and Kyle Daly
The Downtown student government’s judicial board overturned an election code violation Sunday that disqualified presidential candidate Joseph Grossman from the campus’ student government elections last week.
Grossman, whose name was the only one listed on the ballot, was disqualified immediately when a nine-point violation for falsification was levied against his campaign. A candidate is disqualified as soon as he or she accumulates nine violation points.
The judicial board held a meeting Sunday night to consider the complaints Grossman had about the nine-point violation and others.
The Downtown election committee claimed that during a hearing in which Grossman was appealing a former violation, he didn’t read the ASASUD election code before signing documents. The election committee considers this fraudulent, so they issued the violation against him.
On Sunday, the judicial board overturned this decision, finding no evidence to support it.
The board did, however, uphold a three-point violation issued against Grossman prior to his disqualification as evidence was brought forth.
The board also upheld the committee’s decision to consider last week’s election results invalid because of technical difficulties involving the write-in portion of the ballot.
A special election will be held on April 14 and 15 with Grossman and his running mate David Bakardjiev in the race.
The two presidential write-in tickets will also be participating in the election, but it is unclear if the new ballots will feature a write-in section. The board decided that having the names of the write-in candidates on the ballot would be a last option as they try to solve problems involving the ballot’s write-in box.
Write-in candidate Andres Cano is teetering on the disqualification line with eight violation points.
Cano has had two three-point violations levied against his campaign for not properly submitting campaign materials to the election committee, and two one-point violations for breaking an elections code rule that says candidates cannot campaign during an official ASASUD function or inside the Downtown government office.
“We disagree with the committee’s decision,” Cano said in an email. “Our campaign has been unequivocally consistent with following the election code. We will appeal.”
Presidential write-in candidate Diana Inzunza has received no campaign violations.
The judicial board also recommended that the senate consider drafting a due process clause that would require the election committee to contact a candidate when a violation is levied against his or her campaign. Currently, the committee is not required to do so.
Mauro Whiteman also contributed to the report.
Reach the reporters at ktenagli@asu.edu and kjdaly@asu.edu
Clarification: Information in seven of the 15 paragraphs in this story came from a State Press employee, Mauro Whiteman, who is also an employee of The Downtown Devil.
