AAA Candidates Call for Re-Vote

Members of the Asian American Association (AAA) last night called for a re-vote following allegations of misconduct in the association's December 16 elections.

In violation of AAA's constitution, two candidates for president were declared the winners without having won a simple majority of the 84 votes cast for the position, and an unconstitutional run-off was held in a close race between two teams of candidates running for social chair.

When losing presidential candidates Erica S. Cheng '96 and Spencer Lee '95 discovered the next day that winners Alex H. Cho '96 and Jennifer Ching '96 had won by a "clearly unconstitutional" plurality, and not a majority, they called for redress.

"We obviously disagreed with what happened," Lee said. "We were probably going to follow some course of action."

Current AAA Co-president Joan R. Cheng '95 said the unconstitutional procedure was a "matter of misinterpretation" by members of the steering committee who were counting the votes.

In a race with four sets of candidates, the committee thought that 25 percent of the votes made up a simple majority, instead of the 50 percent stipulated by the constitution, Joan Cheng said.

Under the constitution, a run-off should have been held between the two sets of candidates which garnered the most votes.

"We have no qualms about admitting we made mistakes," Joan Cheng said. "[But] some groups automatically jumped to a negative conclusion...they automatically assumed we were doing something illegal or unfair."

And in another break from constitutional procedure, a run-off was held in the race between two sets of candidates for social chair.

"We actually decided to take two votes. We had taken a second vote, hopefully as a confirmation vote, in the hopes it would be more clearly distinguished who was the winner," Joan Cheng said.

"We didn't take the second vote to try to stack the elections in any way, but in order to make it fair as possible," Joan Cheng said.

As a result of the controversy over the handling of the elections, the steering committee decided to hold another election "rather than risk angering others or causing any accusations of illegitimacy," Joan Cheng said.

The re-election is intended "to make it clear that we realize we [messed] up and we're going to correct it," Cho said.

Nominations and voter registration will be closed for the second election, candidates must use the same position papers and will have slightly shorter amounts of time to speak andanswer questions, Joan Cheng said.

Many committee members predict that the secondelection will not change election resultssignificantly.

"In most cases I think the outcomes will be thesame," Joan Cheng said. "For a lot of positions,[the vote] was very close to 50 percent."

Members of the steering committee saidcommittees have made similar departures from theconstitution in past years without incident.

`Outdated'

"We followed custom," said Cho, who currentlyserves as the AAA's secretary. "The problem withour constitution is that it is sorely out ofdate."

Cho said the constitution already underwentsome revision earlier this year, but since AAAmembers did not anticipate any need for revisionof the electoral procedure, no change was made.

"It's just never been a problem in past years,"Cho said. "That's why we haven't beenhyper-formal."

Joan Cheng said the association will set newrules for electoral procedure in a January beforethe mid-February re-vote.

Despite the scheduled reelection, many memberssaid they are concerned about AAA's reputation asa result of the initial misconduct.

"I think this whole incident has been verynegative for AAA," Lee said.

"I feel that it'll bring the same condemnationon AAA that the U.C. has received in the past,"Cho said. "People won't trust us."

Cho said the new presidents will have to workto "restore AAA's credibility on campus."

"A lot of the steering committee who are notrunning for positions were very hurt anddisappointed that so many people accused thesteering committee of AAA of doing somethingunfair," Joan Cheng said

Many committee members predict that the secondelection will not change election resultssignificantly.

"In most cases I think the outcomes will be thesame," Joan Cheng said. "For a lot of positions,[the vote] was very close to 50 percent."

Members of the steering committee saidcommittees have made similar departures from theconstitution in past years without incident.

`Outdated'

"We followed custom," said Cho, who currentlyserves as the AAA's secretary. "The problem withour constitution is that it is sorely out ofdate."

Cho said the constitution already underwentsome revision earlier this year, but since AAAmembers did not anticipate any need for revisionof the electoral procedure, no change was made.

"It's just never been a problem in past years,"Cho said. "That's why we haven't beenhyper-formal."

Joan Cheng said the association will set newrules for electoral procedure in a January beforethe mid-February re-vote.

Despite the scheduled reelection, many memberssaid they are concerned about AAA's reputation asa result of the initial misconduct.

"I think this whole incident has been verynegative for AAA," Lee said.

"I feel that it'll bring the same condemnationon AAA that the U.C. has received in the past,"Cho said. "People won't trust us."

Cho said the new presidents will have to workto "restore AAA's credibility on campus."

"A lot of the steering committee who are notrunning for positions were very hurt anddisappointed that so many people accused thesteering committee of AAA of doing somethingunfair," Joan Cheng said