The ASUO Elections Board has postponed the end of the ASUO general election indefinitely to examine the possibility of allowing students in the Community Education Program and American English Institute to vote. Voting closed for other students at 5 p.m. Thursday.
ASUO Elections Coordinator Aaron Tuttle said the eventual end date for the elections will be decided today after a 9 a.m. meeting between himself and University Vice President of Student Affairs Robin Holmes and Holden Leadership Center Director John Duncan.
Elections results were scheduled for release after 5 p.m. Thursday, when voting for undergraduate, graduate and law students ended. However, after meeting ASUO Adviser Consuela Perez-Jefferis at around 3:30 p.m. to determine the number of potential voters in the CEP and AEI, Tuttle called a meeting of the elections board and posted a sign in the ASUO office window that read, “Election Results will Not be posted!! …Until Further. Notice!!”
After the meeting, Tuttle was the only member of the board willing to answer questions. He said he would not disclose information about when elections results will be released or whether CEP and AEI students will be allowed to vote because he did not know. “It’s up in the air,” he said.
Tuttle said he does not know how many votes have been received so far or who is ahead in the race because he instructed University computing services to hold the tallies. “It’s so any decisions the board makes are not influenced by the numbers,” Tuttle said.
Tuttle and others within the ASUO estimated that the CEP and AEI contain about 600 students combined. They pay the incidental fee, which funds the ASUO, but were unable to vote in the primary election this year. ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz said they had never been able to vote in previous ASUO elections.
The Community Education Program allows students who have not been accepted to the University to enroll in up to eight credits’ worth of classes to go toward degrees at other colleges at reduced rates.
The American English Institute was established in 1978 to teach English to international students seeking application to American universities.
There was confusion over whether those enrolled in the CEP and AEI could be considered students. ASUO governing documents give the right to vote to any “incidental fee paying member of (the ASUO),” and defines members of the ASUO as “all students at the University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, who have paid the current term or semester student incidental fee.”
“People can pay to use the Rec Center. They can’t vote,” ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz told Tuttle. However, Dotters-Katz said he will stand behind whatever decision the elections board makes.
It is unclear whether any student from either program filed a formal complaint stemming from an inability to vote.
Tuttle said the University administration will also support the board’s decision. Holmes did not return phone calls Thursday night asking her to confirm Tuttle’s statements before the Emerald went to press.
Alison Fox, campaign manager for executive candidates Emma Kallaway and Getachew Kassa, called the decision to postpone the results “unprecedented” and the situation it caused “a shit show.”
“I think it’s going to be pretty interesting that there’s 600 students who will decide the election,” she said. “And I think people are going to descend on them tomorrow.”
Kallaway’s opponent Michelle Haley said earlier in the day that she had not been told about the
possibility that elections would be postponed. “I’ve been told they considered extending it,” Haley said. “I don’t really have an opinion either way. I wish there was more communication on behalf of the elections board.”
Candidates voiced frustration at the decision to postpone the election results and confusion about what will happen next. “It needs to stop. We need to make the transition,” Senate candidate Eduardo Dawson said. Dawson said he has lost sleep and fallen behind in classes to work on the election, even postponing work on an honors thesis.
“I think they should be able to vote, but next year,” Dawson said.
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