Majority Opinion
Article 5. Section 9. Subsection B. Clause 1 of the Joint By-Laws of the
Associated Students of Stanford University ... Grounds for not certifying
an election shall include, but need not be limited to, deviations that were
avoidable and could possibly have affected the outcome of any issue in the
election

We (the majority of Sixth Undergraduate Senate) found that, given the
stipulations made in the Joint By-Laws of the ASSU, there were sufficient
grounds for not certifying the April 2004 ASSU Executive Elections.
Specifically, we found that an abuse of power led to an avoidable and
influential deviation.  The majority defines abuse of power as the misuse
of granted privileges.  In this case, a candidate who was a member of the
Senior Class Presidents actively encouraged, and successfully persuaded,
the Senior Class and Junior Class presiding bodies to misuse their University-granted
power to post messages to class-wide email lists.  The University mandates that all
students of a given class receive emails from these lists, with the intent
that the lists only be used to disseminate information about class related
activities.  As a Senior Class president, the candidate in question was
aware of this policy, as were the rest of the Senior and Junior Class
presidents.  Access to such lists allows presidents to communicate with
roughly half of the undergraduate population.  As a result of the email lists'
potential for influence, those vested with control of the lists are given
the responsibility to use them only in a prescribed manner. We deem that the
use of these granted abilities resulted in a deviation from standard
election procedure that was not protected by the constitution.