ASUOP: Election Timeline
This is the darkest timeline.
No seriously, how did we get here? Well, let's take it all the way back to February 21, 2024. This is the date when (according to a complaint filed to the ASUOP Supreme Court by Lorenzo Spaccarelli) ASUOP Advisor Jesse Magaña, “decided to overrule the decision of the Interim Elections Coordinator and Elections Committee allowing a candidate (Nadia Rana and Umayma Moshin) who had submitted their paperwork improperly to run.”
While it is true that Nadia and Umayma didn’t update their paperwork with the Elections Committee when Nadia decided to run for President instead of COP Senator, the ASUOP Advisor was well within his rights to overrule the Elections Committee, as affirmed by the ASUOP Supreme Court in their ruling. Citing these decisions by the Advisor and the Supreme Court, Spaccarelli resigned his position as Interim Elections Coordinator and he was replaced by Senator Ibrahim Tahir.
So, what did this all mean? Well, it meant that what was going to be a non-competitive coronation of Katherine Moreno and Simon Hinmon as president and vice-president suddenly became a knock-down, drag-out affair between two highly competitive and competent tickets. As the chosen moderator of the debate that was to occur on February 23rd, 2024, I was personally celebrating as my job had suddenly gotten much more interesting. Despite a few hiccups I came away from the experience satisfied that no matter who won, the future of ASUOP would be in good hands.
But then, everything changed when the fire nation attacked. As the campaign began in earnest, the violations began flowing in. Katherine and Simon filed 4 against Nadia and Umayma, Chief Justice Ainsley Berryhill filed one against the Moreno/Hinmon campaign, Interim Elections Coordinator Ibrahim Tahir filed another against Senatorial Candidate Junaid Ahmed and finally the Nadia/Umayma campaign filed one more against Katherine and Simon. That’s right folks, a total of 6 violation complaints were filed and heard by the Elections Committee on March 8th. The official results are pictured below.
Another case was filed on the 7th of March by Nadia against Katherine and Simon which alleged the illegal printing of additional posters. The hearing for this case was set to be heard on the 21st. However, this hearing has been postponed until further notice (which is like, against the bylaws but who really cares anymore?).
So, where does that leave us now? Awaiting a Supreme Court decision, of course. Katherine and Simon appealed the Elections Committee decision on case 5 (a detailed explanation of which will be the subject of my next article in the series.) The long and short of it is that Nadia is accused of a major violation, which could result in her disqualification from office. Will the Supreme Court stand by the Elections Committee? Will they overturn their decision? Will they do anything? Only time will tell.
Do you have any information regarding the 2024-2025 ASUOP election that you’d like to share? Reach out in the comments below or send a email to thepacificanuop@gmail.com