The Georgetown University Student Association Assembly struck down Adam Giblin and Eric Lashner’s election appeal Tuesday, finally leaving the election up to the Constitutional Council.
The Council’s decision will be the last step in an election process that has lasted months. Kelley Hampton and Luis Torres were disqualified on Feb. 9, the day after the election, even as they earned the most votes in the election. Giblin and Lashner were declared the winners at the time.
The Constitutional overturned the election results in favor of Hampton and Torres on March 27. The Election Commission then began deliberations on an appeal of the election process Giblin and Lashner filed the day after the election.
On Monday, the Election Commission again reversed the election results. “The Election Commission ruled on a majority vote that the placing of fliers into The Hoya constituted irreparable harm to the election process,” said Election Commissioner Nick Ennis. The Commission decided that this “irreparable harm” warranted disqualification. That decision, however, was subject to the Assembly’s approval, under the GUSA bylaws. This was the first time the Assembly had been involved in the election process.
At a tense meeting on Tuesday, Assembly members debated whether The Hoya incident in fact constituted “irreparable harm.” Hampton, Torres, Giblin, Lashner, and several members of the Election Commission were present to defend their various positions.
Giblin and Lashner argued that the fliers gave Hampton and Torres an unfair advantage over the other candidates, and that the effects of that advantage could not ever be known. “Even if one student got a flier, that student was campaigned to in a way that is not in accordance with the bylaws,”Election Commissioner James Shea said.
However, Hampton says she received permission to place the fliers from the Election Commission. Commissioners say that permission may never have been granted.
Assembly Chair Jack Ternan said that the issue of permission was obsolete. “Simply violating an election rule does not constitute irreparable harm to the election process,” he said. The Assembly ultimately voted not to disqualify Hampton and Torres by a vote of seven to one.
The Election Commission also cited Hampton and Torres for misuse of University property, a charge which will be ruled on by the Constitutional Council. Giblin said that after the Constitutional Council rules, he and Lashner will not file any more appeals.
Hampton and Torres were originally disqualified for exceeding the dollar amount of fines they were allowed. The fliers in The Hoya , Hampton and Torres say, correct inaccurate information about their platform it printed in an editorial endorsing Lashner and Giblin.
The Election Commission argues that this constituted unsolicited distribution of fliers, which has not traditionally been allowed even though it is not specifically forbidden in the GUSA bylaws, according to Assembly Chair Jack Ternan.
