This year, the ASUO Elections Board finally found a way to avoid the grievance hearings and delays that have become a student elections hallmark.
Well, almost.
After a grievance-free primary campaign, the Oregon Commentator plans to submit the first elections grievance of the year to the ASUO Constitution Court today.
Commentator publisher Bret Jacobson said the Commentator will file the grievance because members of the media were not allowed in the ASUO office while primary election results were tallied Friday, which he said violates Oregon law.
“Both the Commentator and the Emerald were prevented from doing their legal duty in overseeing the elections process,” he said.
The Commentator will present the evidence to the court and let the justices decide whether a re-count, a re-vote, or other action is needed, he said.
ASUO Elections Coordinator Courtney Hight said she denied Jacobson’s request to be in the office because he was rude to her and other board members, and he was affiliated with former presidential candidate Tim Dreier, who also works at the Commentator.
“I felt he would enter and cause hostility,” she said. “He would be adding tension that was not needed.”
She added that she had never heard of a law that would require the elections board to let members of the media attend, but she told Jacobson that if he could show her proof that such a law existed, he would more than likely be allowed into the office. Jacobson did not show her the law, she said.
While the Commentator is seeking judgment from the Constitution Court, the candidates themselves, unlike in past years, have been willing to resolve their problems out of court so far.
Like Jacobson, former ASUO Executive candidate John Ely was unhappy with the ballot-counting process, but for a different reason. He said the number of votes he and running mate Hayes Hurwitz received would probably have been higher if there had not been technical problems with DuckWeb during the primary election.
He said heavy system traffic because of online class registration caused errors when some people tried to submit their computer ballot.
Although Ely plans to go to the University Computing Center to see how many of the intended votes for his ticket were actually recorded, he said he won’t file a grievance.
“I’m not making a case out of it because obviously, if it happened to me, it happened to everyone,” he said.
Hight said the elections board has encouraged candidates to find other ways to resolve their complaints besides filing grievances, and board members have tried to be in the office more to handle concerns and answer questions in person.
“A lot of times if people ask first, then there’s no basis for a complaint to be made,” she said. She said the elections board had already resolved “a couple of situations that could possibly have been grievances.”
At a mandatory meeting before campaigning began, the elections board explained to the candidates the elections rules that are perpetually broken and gave each ticket a copy of the guidelines for campaigning in University Housing, which Hight said has been a source of confusion for candidates in the past.
Eric Bailey, who ran for ASUO president this year and last year, said one reason candidates haven’t filed grievances this year may be that many of them know each other, which makes it easier for them to discuss problems in person rather than filing a grievance.
Bailey said the elections board this year was too lenient in some cases with candidates who had violated campaign rules, but he said he was glad the election has not been delayed by grievances.
“Overall, I think the (primary) election went very smoothly, especially considering there were so many candidates, and so much could have gone wrong,” he said.