A result of an election or portion thereof shall be certified upon the approval of a recommendation of certification by the relevant Association legislative bodies. Certifications may not be rescinded or reconsidered.
Article V Section 9 subsection B clause 1 of the ASSU Joint By-Laws states:
The relevant Association legislative bodies shall not certify an election which was conducted in a partisan manner by the elections officers, or which was not in accordance with the Constitution, these By-Laws, the US By-Laws, the GSC By-Laws, the Special Charge of the Commission, the Association Elections Policies, or the Elections Policies of the relevant Association legislative bodies. 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.
Article V Section 9 subsection A clause 3 of the ASSU Joint By-Laws states:
An election may only be certified at a regular meeting of an Association legislative body at least 1, but no more than 5, weeks after the end of the election.
We claim that Article V Section 9 of the ASSU Joint By Laws violates the ASSU Constitution because the Association legislative bodies (i.e. Graduate Student Council and Undergraduate Senate) can use it in an unconstituitional manner to prevent the legally elected president of the Association from taking office. The legislative bodies can do so by either voting to not certify the election results or by refusing to vote on the question of certification until the five-week certification period has passed, thereby rendering the election null and void.
In the present instance, the Undergraduate Senate has voted twice to not certify the election results. Members of the Undergraduate Senate also discussed the possibility of tabling the vote on certification so as to allow the certification period to expire and so render the results null and void.
While the Association legislative bodies have the power to make rules governing elections, they do not have the power to ignore elections. Article III of the ASSU Constitution makes this clear.
Article III Section 3 Clause 3 of the ASSU Constitution states:
The President and Vice President shall be elected by a majority of the Association voting in the spring quarter general election.
Article III Section 4 Clause 1 of the ASSU Constitution states:
The term of the President of the Association shall end when another President of the Association has been elected by the Association.
If the Association legislative bodies either vote to not certify an election or refuse to consider certification within five weeks of the election, they are effectively ignoring the election. Because the clause on grounds for not certifying the election are vague, and because no elected or appointed body can regulate the Association legislative bodies decision to vote to not certify, or indeed, even to vote at all, the Association legislative bodies have free rein over whether or not they should even consider elections.
In the present instance, the Undergraduate Senate can vote to not certify elections for unconstitutional reasons, as many times at it likes. So long as the certification process stands, no one but the Association legislative bodies can force the election results to take effect, even if these results were obtained through a legal election and accurately reflect the sentiment of the voting members of the Association.
The fact that the certification clause of the ASSU Joint By Laws can be used in this way violates Article I Section III Clause 4 of the ASSU Constitution, which states:
The final authority of the Association shall in perpetuity be vested in the members of the Association—the students of Stanford University.
It is clear that the decision of deciding who shall become the next president and vice president of the Association is a decision to be made through the electoral process by the members of the Association, not by their elected representatives.
In Case 1 of 2003-2004, the Constitutional Council found that the Undergraduate Senate violated the Constitution in refusing to certify the results of the Executive portion of the General Election. In that case, the Council cited ASSU Constitutional protections on freedom of speech and freedom of press.
Thus, it is clear that the Undergraduate Senate has already used the certification clause in a manner that violated the ASSU Constitution and prevented the legally elected president of the Association from taking office.
That the Undergraduate Senate has now violated the ASSU Constitution again (as described below) so as to prevent the legally elected president of the Association from taking office indicates that the Undergraduate Senate is consistently and repeatedly using the certification clause (Article V Section 9) of the ASSU Joint By Laws to violate the Constitution in two ways. First, the Senate's grounds for not certifying are unconstitutional. Second, the Senate is using the certification clause in an unconstitutional manner as a stalling procedure that will cause the Executive portion of the General Election to become null and void on Friday, May 14, barring future intervention.
We claim that the ASSU Undergraduate's Senate act of not certifying the Executive portion of the April 7-8 General Election results violated Article I, Section III, clause II, which states:
The Association shall enact no legislation respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Association for a redress of grievances.
The Council has previously found that the Senate's vote to not certify election results is an act, and therefore can be struck down if it is deemed to be unconstitutional.
The Senior Class Presidents are a registered Voluntary Student Organization (VSO) comprising students who are members of the Association.
We claim that the endorsement of any candidate or slate by the Senior Class Presidents is constitutionally protected under freedom of speech and freedom of press.
The Constitutional Council is its last case found that the e-mail sent by the Senior Class Presidents is constitutionally protected under freedom of speech and freedom of press. Therefore, citing this e-mail as the deviation on which the Senate voted again to not certify comprises not only a violation of the Constitution, but an explicit act of defiance toward the Constitutional Council and its ruling.
The basis for voting to not certify thus consists of an endorsement that is constitutionally protected and an e-mail that is constitutionally protected. Therefore, the Undergraduate's act of voting to not certify the Executive portion of the April 7-8 General Election results was unconstitutional.
We ask that the Council strike down the Article V Section 9 of the ASSU Joint By Laws and thus enable the legitimate results of the April 7-8 election to take effect.
We ask that in accordance with the decision to enable the legitimate results of the April 7-8 election to take effect, the Council also recommend that the results of the Special Election held May 5-6 be either destroyed or permanently sealed.