ASDVC election voted null after multiple violations
Kodai Yasuda, stands in front of ASDVC council to state his support to nullify the election
April 23, 2018
The results of the ASDVC election were voted unanimously to be nullified after request from Diablo Valley College governing board due to multiple complaints regarding campaign violations.
The violations that were discussed were illegal use of campaign posters as of procedure 3025.01 in DVC guidelines and breaking United States code for expenditures to influence voting.
The punishment for expenditures to influence voting states that offenders, “Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if the violation was willful, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”
One complaint was brought to light by candidate John Michaelson, who disagreed with ASDVC advisor Todd Farr’s assertion that anonymous complaints cannot be filed for review under ASDVC rules. After discussion, Farr shared the emailed complaint, from candidate Nicole Loh.
DVC student Xinyu Xu also sent an email to Farr reporting that he had been given money to vote for the coalition.
Gu argued that he had “no idea if people who got the money would vote for them,” and that the money given costed less than food given out by other candidates.
There was no exact price stated by the council for how much was given to students but they discussed ranges of 25 cents to a dollar.
“Paying people money to vote, we are talking about a criminal issue,” said Michaelson.
There was discussion defending Gu and his coalition with Yuvia Mendoza, the winner of the election for activities coordinator, stating, “You can chose the red packet (one method of how money was given) and vote for whoever you want.”
Kodai Yasuda, parliamentarian, was the first council member to call for nullification of the election.
“I am so disappointed in this election,” said Yasuda
Kevin Zhang, current ASDVC president, told the council he hopes to have a re-election this semester, but Farr said that there was not enough time to prepare for another election.
The decision for what happens to those who violated both laws is not under ASDVC jurisdiction, but ASDVC will discuss how they will handle reworking their election in the next few days.
“Its really ridiculous that you are robbing people who ran fairly,” said Michaelson. “You have all done the student body a disservice. You have not done your jobs.”
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified John Michaelson as the source of the anonymous complaint.
Kathy Boyd • Apr 26, 2018 at 10:44 am
Thanks to the Inquirer for posting this information. I think it is unconscionable that nowhere ( that I could find ) is there even any mention on the DVC Facebook page or DVC web page about this important occurrence. And it is further ridiculous that all election teams need to be thrown out. Those who ran fairly should be allowed to be seated. Regardless of what Todd Farr the student advisor said, it is not difficult to post another election. The teams made their points with the students-this is not new information. Just set up another polling period.
Timotius Vincent • Apr 23, 2018 at 7:19 pm
The code mentioned above about the posting procedure is not the ASDVC guideline, “procedure 3025.01 in the ASDVC guidelines”. However, it violates DVC Procedure 3025.01 regarding posting in the classroom. And the complaint is not made by John Michaelson, but it is made by someone from the Chinese Student Association who also received the money from the red packet.
Thank you