Judicial Board orders Election Board to change USAC elections calendar

The undergraduate student government Judicial Board found Monday night that the length of the current elections voting period violates the Election Code and ordered the Election Board to change it.

The Undergraduate Students Association Council Judicial Board held a public hearing to address a petition filed by a former Election Board member against the USAC Election Board on Monday. A few USAC councilmembers served as witnesses for both sides of the debate.

Former board member Ian Cocroft filed the complaint against the Election Board in response to the shortened voting period set out in this year’s election calendar. According to the USAC Election Code, polls must stay open for “three full days.”

Several hours after the hearing, the Judicial Board issued a statement saying that members sided with Cocroft in a 5-0-1 vote and found the definition of “three full days” to mean a continuous 72-hour period.

This year, voting will begin online through MyUCLA Tuesday, May 6 at 9 a.m. and will end Thursday, May 8 at 5 p.m. For the past seven years, voting has lasted at least 72 hours.

At the hearing, Cocroft said he thinks the Election Board violated the code by making the voting period less than 72 hours and interpreting “full days” to mean “business days.”

“The changes to the election calendar are unreasonable and unwarranted,” Cocroft said.

In his testimony, Cocroft claimed the shorter calendar could diminish voter turnout, which is generally very low.

To support his argument for a shorter voting period, Election Board Chair Anthony Padilla used data from UC Berkeley that showed that the university’s undergraduate student voter turnout was higher than UCLA’s last year even though Berkeley’s voting period lasts Tuesday through Thursday.

At the hearing, Padilla said the board shortened the voting period to give students a chance to reflect on the elections before voting. He justified his use of business hours because he thought the Election Board would be better prepared to respond to a technological glitch at those times.

“We don’t know if technology will fail us. The building could be destroyed for all we know. We’re waiting for the next big (earthquake),” Padilla said.

Some Judicial Board members expressed confusion about Padilla’s emphasis on keeping polls open during business hours because with the current calendar, the polls are open continuously through Tuesday and Wednesday night. Padilla did not specify how he would handle a technical problem after-hours on those nights at the hearing.

Padilla added that he thinks the decision of the Judicial Board sets a precedent for who can bring future concerns about the Election Code.

Internal Vice President Avi Oved said he plans to put the election calendar change on the agenda for the next USAC meeting Tuesday at 7 p.m. Padilla said he plans to bring a revised election calendar with a voting period that is at least 72 hours in duration to the council at that time.

Contributing reports by Amanda Schallert, Bruin senior staff.