UCI Agrees to Revision of Election Code : Stipulation Filed in Court After ACLU Challenges Student Rules

Rules governing student elections at UC Irvine will be reviewed and revised to assure that free speech rights of individuals and student publications are not violated, according to papers filed by the university in federal court Friday.

The agreement by representatives of the university and the American Civil Liberties Union was filed one day after the ACLU had challenged UCI campus election rules as unconstitutional.

According to the document, the university recognized that rights violations have occurred as a result of enforcement of the student election code, and conceded that wrongful interference with the editorial independence of La Voz Mestiza, a student newspaper, had taken place.

Terms of Stipulation

The umbrella student government organization, Associated Students, “will not implement those sections of the election code which limit constitutional rights of speech during the elections process, or take any actions adverse to the constitutional rights of individuals or media,” according to the stipulation.

The review will begin immediately and must be complete by the start of the fall academic quarter “to ensure that the new elections code meets constitutional standards,” according to the stipulation.

Dan Stormer, the attorney retained by the ACLU to represent La Voz Mestiza, the Chicano student newspaper seized last week by the Associated Students for publishing endorsements of candidates in violation of election rules, said that if the codes are satisfactorily revised, the suit would be dropped.

May Not Pursue Lawsuit

“If all the points in the stipulation are complied with, it should remove the need to pursue the lawsuit any further,” Stormer said.

The ACLU alleged that the Associated Students violated the First Amendment rights of La Voz Mestiza when it confiscated the paper during a second student election last week.

The suit asked the court for injunctions to prevent counting the ballots cast in that election and to block the student government from enforcing election rules that prohibit campus publications from endorsing candidates or that restrict the posting of election materials on campus.

The second election on May 14 and 15 had been called by student officials after ballot stuffing voided the results of an earlier election, held April 30 and May 1.

Following the filing of the suit Thursday, the 25-member UCI student council voted to invalidate the results of the second vote and called for a third election.

UCI Chancellor Jack W. Peltason said Friday that certain “problems” in the election code had been identified and the university attorney, the administration and the student council were working to rectify those problems, according to a university spokesman.