ASB has declared the ASB election invalid and called a re-election due to concerns about verifying student voters. (Graphic by Sam Villa)
The results of the recent ASB election at LBCC have been invalidated over concerns that non-active students and others, like faculty and alumni, may have been able to vote, as well as voter margins, according to ASB student leaders who attended Monday’s ASB meeting.
According to ASB President Priince Bass and Interclub Council President Samuel Perez, the announcement was given during Monday’s ASB meeting, and they explained the reasons given to them.
Perez clarified that he and other cabinet members don’t determine election results. Instead, Dean of Student Affairs Deborah Miller-Calvert and other members of the administration are the ones responsible for overseeing and communicating the results.
According to Perez, the advisor for ASB Kim Hamon, Student Life Derek Oriee and Teila Robertson, and the Director of Student Life and Conduct Sylvia Garcia are the ones in charge of handling the election process and results.
Hamon said last week while in the process of validating results that the team plans to verify each vote by checking student IDs to make sure each voter is an active student.
Perez said it was communicated to him and others that the reason for the re-election was caused by issues with the digital voting system used to collect results. According to him, administrators aren’t able to see the information of each student, just the final results.
“The dean of the department, Deborah, said that we have invalidated the election because.. the system didn’t recognize if you’re active as a student or not. You have to be an active student to vote. But if you left the college, for example, in fall, you have a student number and you log in and you can vote, when you’re not supposed to be voting because you’re not a student any more,” Perez said.
He continued, “The system automatically generates the results.. But they don’t share with us because the system was programmed to everyone voting, not active students.”
He added, “Because that program does not belong to us, we pay a company that manages Viking Engagement and its a private company that we pay, and that company they need to fix the problem.”
In a text interview with ASB President Bass, he mentioned that he asked ASB election officials why they needed to verify the votes, given that the login system uses a multifactor identification login and asked why the verification hadn’t been done in the past.
“..They said last year the margins weren’t this close which lead to the to further investigation on the votes, we asked for the results and (they) say we couldn’t get that information,” Bass said.
Bass asked ASB why ASB could not see the number of votes or share the results, even if they were to remove the unverified voters.
Bass continued, “We were repeatedly told there was no further information that can be provided, it will be a future election…”
He goes on to say, which Perez also mentioned, that the dates for the upcoming re-election are not determined yet.
Perez said the school is waiting to resolve the voting issue and “make sure the system is working correctly,” before holding the next election.
LAC Interclub Council Vice President Usama Habash was contacted for comment regarding the re-election but denied, saying, “I am willing to talk to you when the ASB Board has something to share.”
ASB’s weekly cabinet meetings are open for all students to attend, although students are rarely seen in attendance.
As of now, no public statement has been released mentioning the invalidation of the election that closed on April 23 or plans for a re-election.
The dean of student affairs, Deborah Miller-Calvert was not readily available to comment but agreed to an interview Friday.
The investigation is still developing and more details are expected to come soon.
