UCI’s Student Council Delays Tallying Votes

The saga of the fraudulent UC Irvine student election took another twist Thursday night when the student council, acting under pressure from the university administration, decided to postpone counting the votes cast in the second balloting of the last two weeks.

The ballots--to elect the student body president, four other officers and 20 council members--were to be counted Friday, but, according to student election commissioner John Dey, the 25-member council tabled a motion to begin counting after receiving threats of intervention from the UCI administration.

This week’s balloting, on Tuesday and Wednesday, was ordered after allegations of ballot stuffing invalidated the results of an election held two weeks ago. Results of the first election were tabulated, but not released, while the outcome of this week’s vote remains unknown.

Dey said that Horace Mitchell, UCI’s vice chancellor for student affairs, Thursday threatened to decertify the election and fire Dey if the balloting was approved by the student council.

Mitchell agreed that he brought pressure to bear on the student council Thursday night but denied the allegation that he threatened to fire Dey, which he said he lacks authority to do. Mitchell, however, did say he was concerned about alleged inconsistencies that arose during both balloting periods.

Mitchell cited “selective enforcement” of election rules, including the seizure Tuesday of the Chicano student publication, La Voz Mestiza, for endorsing candidates during balloting. Mitchell said no action was taken against another campus paper, the New University, when it endorsed candidates during the first balloting.

According to student election regulations, all campaigning, including printed endorsements, is prohibited while voting is under way.

Funds Publication

Student body president Julie Justus said Thursday that the Associated Students had the right to confiscate L a Voz Mestiza because it funds the publication.

“That is a 100% (Associated Students) UCI publication and we’re the publishers,” Justus said. “Those funds are contingent upon their abiding by our constitution, rules and election code.”

Gaspar Copado, editor of La Voz Mestiza, agreed that student government technically is the publisher, but said the temporary confiscation this week violated the paper’s right to free speech and was unfair because the New University was not similarly punished.

“I think there is some inconsistency there,” he said.

While the American Civil Liberties Union is looking into the possibility of representing La Voz Mestiza in a lawsuit against the student government, the administration is trying to determine who runs the paper.

Seeks Clarification

Although La Voz Mestiza is student-funded, the question of who has ultimate control over its editorial content “is a matter of interpretation,” Mitchell said. “We’ve asked university attorneys to clarify that point.”

Mitchell declined to say whether the administration would have acted to decertify the election had the student council decided to count the ballots Thursday. Because the student council postponed the count, the university didn’t have to make a decision, he said.

Meanwhile, Mitchell said, ballot counting has been suspended until after the student elections commission and groups which claim the rules were unfairly enforced jointly determine if selective enforcement of election rules was serious enough to warrant a third vote.

“We’re trying not to interfere,” Mitchell said. “But we can’t let a major situation get out of hand because people are not working in a way that will not allow students with different points of view to be recognized.”

Expects Decision Tuesday

Dennis Hampton, the full-time, paid executive director of Associated Students at UCI, said he expects the council to vote Tuesday on whether to begin tabulating the results of the election.

If the council votes to begin the ballot count and the administration moves to decertify the election, Hampton said, the student government may file a lawsuit against the university alleging that it has no right to interfere in student elections.

The second round of balloting was prompted by the discovery of election fraud, which invalidated the results of the original vote. Of 2,400 ballots cast, 450 had been made using false identification cards.

According to student president Justus, officials were tipped off to the ballot stuffing by a “concerned student.” Justus said the fake IDs were traced to a break-in at the UCI registrar’s offices last December.

Although an investigation by the UCI ombudsman is continuing, no evidence has been uncovered linking the fraud to any of the candidates, Justus said.

If caught, the guilty parties could face both academic expulsion and criminal charges, she said. “We’re talking about breaking and entering and forgery,” Justus said. “Those students will be prosecuted.”