One member of the slate incited students to vote for the team during the polling period
Shortly after the release of the results of the Concordia Student Union (CSU) elections, it was announced that Cut the Crap, the elected slate, was disqualified for violating standing regulations.
Florian Prual, chief electoral officer (CEO) of the elections, said a slate member incited students to vote for the entire slate during the polling period, which is in violation of the union’s standing regulations. “It’s probably one of the worst things she could have done,” said Prual.
Danielle Vandolder-Beaudin, the finance coordinator candidate, messaged students asking if they had voted, and introducing them to her slate. “You down to vote for us?” wrote Vandolder-Beaudin in one of the messages obtained by The Concordian. Vandolder-Beaudin proceeded to tell students how to vote online and listed the names of the Cut the Crap candidates.
Prual said this falls under “abuse of electronic balloting,” which includes pressuring voters to vote in the presence of a candidate, and bringing the means of electronic voting to a voter.
“That’s an issue and it’s pretty unfair to the other candidates. You cannot incite someone to vote for them during the polling period,” said Prual.
The standing regulation article in question was in fact brought forward to council by CSU Councillor Patrick Quinn, also the academic and advocacy coordinator candidate for Cut the Crap.
According to the standing regulations, it is up to the CSU CEO to declare who is elected 24 hours after the counting of the ballots.
CSU General Coordinator, Sophie Hough-Martin said “this is profoundly disappointing.” Hough- Martin said there is still some confusion as to what the next step is. She added, “I would like to assure the student body that we’ll do our best to rectify this […] to protect the interests of students and democracy in the university.”
Vandolder-Beaudin is banned from running in any CSU election in the next year.
Members of Cut the Crap refused to comment on their disqualification.
Photo by Mia Anhoury.
