ASUOP: Round 3, Fight!
GET OVER HERE (and learn about our student government)
Three years ago, I began my adventures in student journalism by starting my own Instagram blog and reporting on the outcome of the 2022-2023 ASUOP Presidential Election. While I stand firmly by the facts of the articles I wrote back then, I look back upon them now much like I look upon the version of myself I was 3 years ago, with mild amusement and a little bit of distaste. In the 2023-2024 election, I found myself working for the Gomez/Manning ticket and therefore refrained from reporting on the situation. However, I was able to experience first-hand how it felt to see your friend, someone you truly believed to be a solid candidate for ASUOP office, be dragged through the mud for violating some silly, petty rule written by a silly, petty person. That brings us full circle, to the 2024-2025 election.
Oh boy, what a mess this one has been. Accusations have been flying on all sides. 7 violations were filed. All but 2 of them were levied by one side of the Presidential election against the other (with the remainder being filed by the Interim Elections Coordinator Ibrahim Tahir himself against a senatorial candidate - I will come back to that in a future article - and another by Chief Justice Ainsley Berryhill.)
Now, before I say anything else, I just want to make it clear, I was overjoyed at the outset of this election because I had faith in both sets of candidates. That joy did not last for long as I watched both sides fall prey to the ailment of litigiousness that has seemingly infected both our student government and our nation’s political culture at large. Instead of fighting for votes in the gladiatorial arena of democracy, both candidates turned to the byzantine ASUOP Bylaws to discredit and disqualify the other.
The elections of the past three years leave us with only two possible conclusions: Either every Presidential Candidate in the past 3 years has been corrupt and petulant rule breakers, or alternatively, the rules are dumb, overcomplicated, and incentivize this exact behavior that we have grown so, so weary of over the past three years.
The election code is 23 pages and 6805 words long. It contains such genius propositions as a ban against campaigning during the voting period, it forces interested candidates into obtaining 100 signatures to run for the presidential office, and it is so convoluted as to deter all but the most determined or connected candidates from running. In effect, the election code, which is supposed to guide candidates, is instead a weapon against them. It places an undue burden on those who only wish to serve our student body.
None of this, of course, excuses any behavior by any candidate in this cycle, or any other. But, I think, it proves why things are the way they are. The over-criminalization of perfectly normal behavior is rampant in our bylaws. Our bylaws are not the solution, they are part of the problem. They can and should be changed to make our elections more about democracy and less about litigation.
Keep an eye on this space, there are many more articles in the works. Reach out in the comments or to thepacificanuop@gmail.com if you have any information or tips regarding the recent ASUOP Elections.