AS Election Board Makes Decision on 2019 Spring Election Code Violation

The AS Board for the 2019-2020 school year is sworn in by Nora Harren, the current AS Representation and Engagement Programs Director of the AS REP office. Ella Banken//AS Review

By Charlene Davatos

Updated 6/10/19 for clarifying details from Bennett Massey-Helber

The Associated Students Elections Board held a grievance hearing on May 9 to resolve three of the nine grievances filed by Abdul Malik-Ford against his fellow election candidates.

Ford had alleged that Trever Mullins, Lani DeFiesta and Grace Dreschel broke Section 3, subsection IV c of the code, which states that “Current AS employees, may not, as employees or individuals, endorse candidates.” More specifically, Mullins, DeFiesta and Dreschel received and reposted endorsements from current AS employees, particularly members of the current AS Executive Board.

The elections board ruled four for and one against that Mullins, DeFiesta and Dreschel were all found in violation of both Section 3.IV.c for endorsement, as well as Section 3.II.a for breaking candidate conduct.

Prior to the grievance hearings, Ford had shared a Google Document, titled “The Rigged Election,” on social media. The document shared screenshots of the endorsements made by AS President Millka Solomon, AS VP for Student Life Anne Lee, AS VP for Academic Affairs Levi Eckman, Director of AS Productions Pauline Elevazo and AS Senator for Fairhaven College Dayjha McMillan in support of Mullins, DeFiesta and Dreschel. Ford also shared screenshots of the candidates reposting these endorsements.

Ford’s public statements on social media removed the anonymity granted to him as a filer of the grievances. “I think it’s important that this whole process is transparent, and this is a public grievance, because it didn’t just affect me, it involved everyone involved in the elections,” Ford said.

Mullins stated that he thought it was a good thing that the grievances were made public. “I think it’s important for a public response to occur, though it does come with its own set of dramas and atmosphere changers,” Mullins said. “Moving forward, I hope that the public continues looking for transparency in next year’s executive board and in elections.”

The candidates hadn’t known that reposting endorsements made by the executive board members would violate election code, Mullins said. “It wasn’t something explicitly listed in the code,” he said. “Only after seeing Malik’s post and hearing that he was going to file grievances, had I considered that it might have been a violation of elections code in anyway.”

According to Elections Board Chair Bennett Massey-Helber, what is explicitly stated in the letter of the law and what is meant in the spirit of the law was the key point of discussion for the elections board. Their decision showed that DeFiesta, Mullins and Dreschel broke code 3.II.a outright. However, the elections board also decided after a lengthy debate that reposting the endorsement violated code 3.IV.c of the code, which prohibits posting an endorsement.

Code 3.II.a states that “Candidates, measure sponsors, official opposition campaigns, or any person otherwise involved
in a campaign will adhere to the Candidate conduct agreement provided in the candidate filing packet.”

“Even if it didn’t [violate 3.IV.c],” Massey-Helber said. “We ruled that reposting certainly constitutes as unprofessional conduct towards other candidates.”

Ford said that he’d hoped more from the elections board in terms of consequences for Mullins, DeFiesta and Dreschel. “I’d hoped that there would be a disqualification,” Ford said.

“They need to acknowledge the fact that the election would have been different had they not posted the endorsements,” Ford said. “They need to acknowledge that they had help of executives whose position they are trying to fulfill…I had a problem with them utilizing the clout that Anne [Lee] had and utilizing the clout they gained from that.”

Though the elections board took into consideration what Ford had hoped for in terms of consequence, they decided that the repostings weren’t such an egregious infraction as to disqualify the candidates, Massey-Helber said.

“We couldn’t say for sure the endorsement was worth that many votes. It’s hard to point to this endorsement and say it caused that 124 vote difference,” Massey-Helber said.

The elections board will not be holding hearings for Ford’s six remaining grievances against Solomon, Lee, Eckman, Elevaso, McMillan and AS VP for diversity Camilla Mejia. Only two of the grievances, as well as a statement written by the elections board concerning their opinions on the grievances will be sent to the AS Personnel Office, since they are filed against current executive board members or AS employees.

“We want the elections board to be transparent in the grievance hearings, there is certainly a right,” Massey-Helber said. “But at the same time, when we look at these grievances against personnel, those do not need to be made public. The most important thing is that we make sure that the privacy of students not holding public office is maintained.”

“The only thing I will say is the only other main point we made in our statements is that the election board is concerned about public officials within the AS violating the AS [Elections] Code,” Massey-Helber said.

Massey-Helber stated that the elections board thinks that these endorsements are a trend, as last year, grievances had been filed against former AS VP for diversity Erick Yanzon for endorsing a slate of candidates during the 2018 elections.

Ford stated that he was disappointed in both the consequences given by the elections board and the fact that there has yet to be any seen consequences for the current executive board.

“If that’s all that’s done, I don’t see how that’s restorative justice. Anyone can make a statement, and it’ll just cycle into the next year,” Ford said.

Mullins, DeFiesta and Dreschel released public statements to the Western Front, the AS Review and to social media addressing the code violation as consequence for the code violation.

DeFiesta and Dreschel have declined to comment outside of their public statements.