ASUC Judicial Council Certifies Preliminary Elections Results

The ASUC Judicial Council has certified the ASUC elections results for the 2008-09 school year with the preliminary results remaining the same.

The certified results were the same as the preliminary results, with no drops or disqualifications, said ASUC Judicial Council Chair Allison Day.

"I'm thankful that it was a very easy election season," Day said.

As announced in the tabulation, CalSERVE swept four of the five executive seats with Senator Roxanne Winston as president, partymember Krystle Pasco as executive vice president, partymember Carlo de la Cruz as academic affairs vice president and External Affairs Vice President's Chief of Staff Dionne Jirachaikitti as external affairs vice president.

Independent candidate Matt DeMartini, who is the current student advocate's chief of staff, was chosen for the student advocate position.

The ASUC Senate will be composed of eight Student Action and affiliated partymembers, eight CalSERVE members, an independent candidate and one member each for Berkeley College Republicans, SQUELCH! and the Cooperative Movement.

Candidates expressed relief that the verification process was nearly over.

"I'm glad-it's important that it's

official for us to really move forward," Jirachaikitti said.

The results must now be read into the minutes of an ASUC Senate meeting in order to be verified, said ASUC Attorney General Alex Kozak, noting that they are likely to be read into tonight's meeting minutes.

Kozak said that he did not think it was likely that any changes would be made in the results between their certification and their verification.

In addition to the certified results, the senate will also consider a bill changing elections procedures.

The bill calls for all ASUC voter data be released on the ASUC and election Web sites within twelve hours after the good faith deadline-or at 4 p.m. the Tuesday after polls close.

Previously, public tabulations have taken place shortly after the deadline in order to determine elections results.

But under the new rules for this year, candidates could only drop before or after the preliminary tabulation, rather than during the process.

With the new procedure, the public tabulation process is no longer a necessary part of elections, said UNITE Greek Senator Christian Osmena, who co-authored the bill.

"Aside from the excitement, I don't think there's a need for a public tabulation," Osmena said.

He said he hopes the bill would make preliminary elections results available at or before public tabulation.

"Providing that information as soon as possible is a reasonable request," he said.

While the bill aims to make vote information more readily available to the public, some said they expect that the public tabulation would still continue.

"I don't think it'll make that much of a difference, because the public tabulation is kind of a tradition," Jirachaikitti said.

Tags: ASUC JUDICIAL COUNCIL