UPDATE: The official results have been confirmed and certified by Student Government advisors and the Elections Board. They were released to the student body on April 11.
After being reprimanded and disqualified, Pedro Amirato actually came out on top.
The Student Court originally decided to disqualify the presidential candidate and his VP Patrick Callahan on March 20 based on inconsistencies in their campaign expense forms — in other words, he didn’t fill out his campaign forms correctly.
The original challenge was posed by presidential candidate Ella Tepper and her VP Jaclyn Broudy. According to a letter sent out on April 5 from Senior VP of Student Affairs Charles Brown, provided to the UP by Amirato, Amirato will assume the position of president.
Amirato sent an appeal to the Brown on March 21 — the last possible appeal in the election according to the SG elections statutes.
According to the letter, Brown overturned the decision of the court to disqualify the candidates because it was not in their jurisdiction.
“I am granting you appeal, in part, on the basis that the Student Court did not have the authority under Student Government Statutes Chapter 319.000 (Appeal Process for Elections Board Decisions) to disqualify the Amirato/Callahan ticket,” Brown wrote in the letter.
“I understand why [the decision] was overturned,” Chief Justice of Student Court Ryan Quinn said. “But I still stand by the court’s decision.”
According to Quinn, he was not aware that it wasn’t in the Student Court’s jurisdiction to disqualify candidates. The Court did, however, have the right to call for a new election after they overturned the Elections Board’s decision, based on statute 319.421. Since this course of action was not taken, Brown’s decision is final.
Amirato was originally reprimanded by the Elections Board, which was then overturned by Student Court and he was disqualified.
“Going through everything that I had to go through makes me appreciate the position that much more,” Amirato said. “Overturning the decision of the court really restored my faith in the system.”
“It wasn’t the outcome that I was expecting,” Tepper said. “To say that this has been a rollercoaster is an understatement. At this point, I’m just glad that it’s over.”
An official email announcing the results of the election has not been released to the student body as of publication time. According to Associate Dean of Students Terry Mena, the results will be released by April 9.
