We made a mistake," reads the subject line of a Dec. 4 e-mail sent by ASUC Senator Kifah Shah to CalSERVE officials and Independent Senator Saira Hussain. The mistake Shah referred to was the officials' failure to ensure that Senator John Moghtader's recall election would occur during finals week. But in terms of the wrongdoing involved overall, this mistake is just the tip of the iceberg.

In a Nov. 17 e-mail, ASUC President Roxanne Winston put CalSERVE Senators and a Student for Justice in Palestine official in touch with each other to ensure the recall was "moving along."

Still worse, in a "heinous" move, the senators pressured the ASUC attorney general multiple times to help set an earlier election date.

These e-mails document the heavy hand of CalSERVE officials in organizing the recall election from the beginning. Regardless if they were for or against the recall, the secretive actions of these officials greatly undermine the ASUC's democratic processes and calls into question whether these officials are trustworthy and fit to serve the student body.

Winston insists that she sent the e-mails from her personal account, as did Shah. In terms of the bylaws, this technicality may give them a free pass from punishment. But in the real world of right and wrong, this technicality means nothing.

Winston and the CalSERVE Senators involved are elected officials; this simple fact does not change when they leave their Eshleman offices or sign out of their official ASUC e-mail accounts. Regardless of which address the e-mails were sent from, their authors were wrong.

The officials' disingenuous manner exacerbates the extent of their wrongdoing; they put on a public facade of neutrality, yet were coordinating the recall behind closed doors. We hope the Judicial Council reprimands them, but regardless, students should hold them accountable when election time comes around.