According to documents obtained by the Cornell Review, two candidates for the Student Assembly are at risk of disqualification. Both candidates were running to represent the College of Engineering on the SA.
The College of Engineering, which has two seats on the SA, fielded three candidates. Only one—Amy Wang ‘26—was listed as a victor on yesterday’s election returns. The other two candidates, Alexander Ellis ‘24 and Caroline Ryu ‘24, allegedly fell short of the signature requirement. Getting on the ballot for SA elections requires gathering signatures from the constituency one is running to represent. The College of Engineering requires 75 signatures from engineering students.
A challenge filed last Wednesday, May 3, accuses both candidates of gathering insufficient signatures from engineering students. The full document contains a list of student NetIDs belonging to non-CoE signatories of both candidates’ petitions.
Cornell’s announcement of the election results yesterday afternoon was caveated with the notice that two races “are still pending; the results of these will be posted after the challenge hearing have concluded.” This warning has since been removed, and no mention of the two candidates in question has been added.
The competition for the College of Engineering’s two seats—between three candidates—was one of the few contested elections this year.
The SA’s election rules require challenges to be settled by the SA’s own Elections Committee and Office of Ethics. Any challenges must be substantiated “beyond a reasonable doubt” in a hearing adjudicated by these committees. Disqualification requires a two-thirds majority of the Elections Committee, though they may also “impose lesser sanctions.”
The SA’s own elections website implores candidates to collect more than enough signatures “in the event that a signature is invalid.”
The decision of the Ethics and Elections committees will be delivered in secret.
