Fall 2012 ASUCD Election

The Fall 2012 ASUCD Election was held November 13th-16th online at http://elections.ucdavis.edu. There were 14 candidates competing for 6 ASUCD Senate seats. Two slates, SMART and NOW, were responsible for 10 of the candidates. The additional 4 candidates ran independent. NOW received 40% of the vote, SMART received 36% and the Independents received 24%. Unlike the Winter 2012 ASUCD Election the six top vote getters and the six elected senators were the same.

Voter turnout was just over 20%, the highest turnout for a Fall ASUCD Election since 2002.

In order, the winners were: 1. Armando Figueroa 2. Alyson Sagala 3. Tal Topf 4. Felicia Ong 5. Liam Burke 6. Maxwell Kappes

Beergate

After the election, the dark truth about the SMART slate finally came out: some of them drink beer at parties. But the worst part about this was the fact that not a single one of them cited their expenses for the booze on their campaign expenditure forms. So Senator Bradley Bottoms, respectable citizen that he is, filed a complaint against the slate with the Elections Committee. The SMARTies claimed that the campaign event was BYOB, and thus the hops-laden beverages were personal expenses only.

Would it be that this sad tale ended here, I would be most happy. But woe to me, dear reader, as I am compelled to write the horrible tale of the unfortunate events that followed. In fact, according to the Aggie, there were no less than eight electoral complaints filed in this election. Their rivals in NOW also stood accused of the heinous crime of not reporting their expenses on the brewski line item.

Furthermore, candidate Felicia Ong accused a campaigner of her rival, Armando Figueroa, of calling her a "racist" in the supposed safety of a Unitrans bus. This cruel remark was clearly possibly maybe a violation of the ASUCD Bill of Rights. To add insult to insult, no one in ASUCD actually knows how the Bill of Rights figures into anything — it seems to have been adopted without adding it to any existing document, so its legal force is questionable at best. As the Elections Committee only enforces Elections Codes, this sadly left Ong with no redress except winning a Senate seat.

Complaints were flying: Did NOW repeat the tragedy of the Campaigning in Dorms Controversy? Did SMART's campaigning near the bus terminal count as an illegal endorsement from Unitrans? (Okay, that's one's a definite no.) As Jared Crisologo-Smith put it so wisely, "This is an outrage, and represents an egregious offense to the principles of democracy that ASUCD was founded upon." It appeared that not one candidate stayed clean in this sad affair.

And then the other shoe finally fell — and I warn you dear reader, this is not a pretty sight — Alyson Noele Sagala was disqualified by the Elections Committee. Shunned as a scapegoat, sacrificed to pay for all of the evils of the election — unreported Natty Light (Correction, Natty Light was not provided! We have standards), statements of opinion, and shaking hands at the bus stop — she was condemned to be banished from the ASUCD Senate.

Seeing all of the injustice, IAC Chair Sergio Cano took the case to the highest levels (well, the only other level), and filed an appeal with the ASUCD Court. He claimed that even the Elections Committee had ignored the bylaws. In so doing so, it meant that no new Senator could be seated, for all would grind to a halt. And so it was that a summit was arranged; Cano convened a council with Justin Goss, Aaron Hsu, the Elections Committee, and even the ASUCD Business Manager in hopes of settling the tragic tale once and for all. Serg pleaded his case: most of the complaints had been filed against slates, and not against candidates. The bylaws specify that only candidates can be charged or censured — not slates — in order to prevent far greater travesties.

Cano's argument won the day, and all of the election complaints were dropped. Everyone was forgiven, and allowed to take office! It was like the whole affair had never happened, except that these people are now supposed to work with each other every day. Huzzah!

Aggie Endorsements

1. Olivia Brown 2. Liam Burke 3. Armando Figueroa 4. Felicia Ong 5. Jonathan Yip 6. Alyson Sagala

Alternate Universe

For the following sections bold means they were one of the winning candidates. These are not the actual election results, but fun we can have with the data. The usual disclaimers apply, such as voter behavior being different in a system without choice voting, etc.

Condorcet Winner

The Condorcet winner (the least objectionable candidate) of this election was Alyson Sagala.

Top 6

What if the top six vote-getters were elected, counting people's top 6 rankings?

Most Hated

Who got the most last-ranked votes?

Countback Winners

These Countback elections were run under the assumption that all eligible candidates were willing to serve if elected in the Countback election and that there had been no prior Countback election for the Fall 2012 pool of Senate candidates. Both of those assumptions can alter the outcome of an actual Countback election. This list shows the current Senators and who would replace them in a Countback election if both of the preceding assumptions were true.

• Armando Figueroa would be replaced by Olivia Brown
• Alyson Noele Sagala would be replaced by Olivia Brown
• Tal Topf would be replaced by Kevin Pelstring
• Felicia Ong would be replaced by Robert Helfend
• Liam Burke would be replaced by Robert Helfend (Helfend defeats Pelstring by less than 1 vote in the final round of the Countback election)
• Maxwell Kappes would be replaced by Robert Helfend

The ASUCD Constitution requires that the winner of a Countback election acquire at least 50% of the threshold for the Countback election to serve as a Senator. All six candidates met that requirement.

Links

• Fall 2012 Ballot Data and Reports