The effort put forward by a group of students to change the
format of the undergraduate student government to a senate system
has been halted because the signatures gathered to initiate a
special election were not verified.
Nathan Lam, the Elections Board chairman, said that after
looking through the signatures, he found there are not enough to
prompt a special election.
Signatures from 15 percent of the undergraduate student
population, or 3,634 signatures, are required for a special
election to take place according to the Elections Code.
The collected signatures were presented to Lam and the
Undergraduate Students Association Council on March 15.
Lam said signature verification has several stages, but there is
no need to proceed because the signatures did not get past the
first phase.
The initial stage included the elimination of invalid or
unreadable signatures. One sheet of signatures was also eliminated
for not being previously approved by the E-Board.
Signatures appearing twice were also eliminated.
Lam said a substantial number of people signed more than once
and he is certain there are more duplicates because he was only
looking through them personally and eliminating the names he
remembered seeing before.
Lam said it is highly improbable for there to be a special
election before the general election scheduled for the fifth week
of spring quarter.
“Even though the signatures were invalid, I feel that
enough students have an interest in this that I’m going to
recommend to council to put it on the general ballot,” Lam
said.
But Brian Neesby, who led the efforts to propose a senate
system, said it would be a compromise to wait until the special
election.
“I’m glad (Lam) sees that people’s voices are
behind it,” said Neesby, who is the chief of staff of the
Financial Supports Commission but is not working on its behalf.
There is also no guarantee that the council will approve the
initiative for the general elections.
Neesby said more than 4,000 signatures were turned in. He added
that after looking through them, he believes that more than 3,900
were valid, allowing a 300 signature buffer.
Neesby, who has yet to see which specific signatures were
eliminated, said he plans to meet with Lam to go over the exact
interpretation of the Elections Code in regard to what signatures
are considered eligible.
Neesby has also not ruled out taking the case to the Judicial
Board, but by the time a ruling is made, it may be too late for a
special election to be held.