GLENDALE : College’s Election Results in Jeopardy

Allegations of unfair electioneering and complaints that administrators prevented candidates from speaking about their opponents threatened to postpone or even nullify the results of this week’s Associated Student Body elections, a Glendale College official said Wednesday.

A group of students called for the disqualification of incumbent ASB President Arthur Khachatourians, saying a campaign worker for Khachatourians stood near the voting tables Tuesday and instructed a group of about 30 students how to vote.

Khachatourians, meanwhile, said the student in question did not work for his campaign and the allegations were part of an effort to remove him from office.

“Just as it would be in a regular national election, this is inappropriate behavior because it sways the voters’ opinions and thereby fixes the returns to go one way or the other,” said Rebecca Barras, a former ASB representative, who said she witnessed the incident.

Barras and other students, including several candidates in the elections that began Tuesday morning and were expected to conclude Wednesday evening, contended that administrators should have pulled Khachatourians off the ballot.

They said they brought the matter to Paul Schlossman, dean of student activities, who oversees ASB government meetings and the election process, but were dismayed when he instead offered to cancel the elections altogether and reschedule them.

“If it’s a clear violation, you don’t cancel the election. Removal of the candidate should be the option,” said Kevin Hopkins, a candidate for Associated Men Students president. Canceling the election would also penalize those candidates who had “campaigned fairly,” he said.

Other candidates complained that during a recent political forum, they were ordered by administrators not to criticize their opponents or the college administration in their speeches.

Schlossman said Tuesday he was “fielding complaints right and left” about the election, but he would not comment on charges that the voting process was tainted in favor of the incumbent president.

He said verbal complaints had been made against “a number of candidates” and administrators are following the college’s grievance procedures to sort them out, which could end up postponing or even nullifying the election results, which are due today.

Khachatourians, meanwhile, said he believes those calling for his removal from the race are taking aim at him for not having always opposed the positions of the college administration, which they consider “evil,” he said.

“You’ve not seen me go around and accuse other candidates. I’ve stood on the issues that I believe in,” he said. “They don’t want to see me get reelected, and they will do anything . . . in a very unethical way to be elected.”