‘Allegations of Campaign Violations’ Delay UC Election Results

Due to allegations that Undergraduate Council presidential candidates or campaign staff violated campaign rules, the UC executive board voted in an “urgent” meeting Thursday night to grant the UC Election Commission extra time to certify the results of the UC’s presidential election.

“The Election Commission is currently investigating concerns,” UC President Shaiba Rather ’17 said.

UC Election Commission Chair Matthew C. Estes ’18 and Rather declined to comment further on the nature of the allegations.

Voting for this year’s UC presidential election ended Thursday at noon. The UC Election Commission typically has 24 hours after the end of the voting period—or until Friday at noon—to calculate and certify the results of the election. Due to the vote, the Commission now has until Saturday at noon to certify the results.

This year’s UC presidential election featured four tickets: Scott Ely ’18 and Evan M. Bonsall ’19, Yasmin Z. Sachee ’18 and Cameron K. Khansarinia ’18, Eduardo A. Gonzalez ’18 and Alex Popovski ’19, and Grant S. Solomon ’18 and Alexander T. Moore ’18.

The vote came at the end of an “urgent exec meeting” among members of the executive board, according to an email Rather sent to UC executives at 8:35 p.m.

The executive board convened in the Student Organization Center at Hilles at 9 p.m.

Because of their statuses as UC committee chairs, Ely, Sachee, and Khansarinia were present at the meeting.

At the meeting, a majority of the executive board voted to enter executive session—a rare private, off-the-record session of the Council, whose meetings are normally open to the public. During the meeting, Estes requested “a 24-hour extension to certify the 2016 UC Presidential Election Results in order to investigate allegations of campaign violations.”

A majority of executive board members voted to approve the extension. All executive board members other than UC Vice President Daniel V. Banks ’17 and Student Life Committee Chair Berkeley Brown ’18 were in attendance at the meeting.

—check thecrimson.com for updates.