When it comes to ASUC politics, the constant show of ridiculousness seems to drag on and on. As relieved as many of us were to roam the campus free of the enthusiastic harassment of campaign underlings, the politicking continued behind closed doors.

This time, the means utilized in the partisan battles was the practice of dropping candidates. Though the drop system has been commonplace during and shortly after ASUC elections in recent years, the party politics inherent to it epitomize much of what is wrong with the ASUC.

On Tuesday night, word got out that Student Action was dropping senatorial candidate Arya Shirazi in a move that would shift the senate's party balance to nine seats for Student Action and six for CalSERVE. Though this was not the most transparent move by Student Action, it is legal according to the ASUC bylaws and makes obvious political sense.

That Student Action can gain two more senate seats by dropping one senator may seem illogical. But because of the voting system used in ASUC Senate elections (in which voters rank candidates by preference), the preliminary election results can be altered to achieve more favorable results for either party by dropping candidates.

The Judicial Council issued a temporary emergency injunction Wednesday preventing the votes from being re-tabulated after a charge sheet was filed by CalSERVE senator (and ex-presidential candidate) Oscar Mairena. In response to the charge, the Judicial Council ought to rule that Student Action is within their legal rights to drop Shirazi.

CalSERVE dropped five candidates before tabulation this year, and ran candidates who had no intention of becoming senators clearly for the purpose of amassing more party votes. Moreover, this issue could and should have been addressed by the ASUC Senate, of which Mairena has been a member for the past year. Claims of ethical superiority do not hold water if you utilize a system when it's politically expedient, yet cry foul when it fails to work in your favor.

But, again, prioritizing partisan success rather than students' concerns and interests is characteristic of both parties and the faulty candidate drop system is just another example of this critical flaw. Dropping candidates in this manner disregards voters who may have elected Shirazi (or any other candidate) on the basis of his ideas or qualifying attributes, rather than the fact that he ran with Student Action.

As often is the case with the ASUC, it's all about the parties and it's always the students who lose in the end. Candidates and non-partisan voters become pawns in Student Action and CalSERVE's twisted game of musical senate seats.

Besides the rare major party candidates with truly good intentions, the drop system also completely locks out many independent candidates, who have virtually no chance of winning a seat without strong backing from a student group or being aligned with one of the parties.

Based on logic alone, the system is broken-do students really want their votes to be manipulated so that the ends of two small but powerful campus factions can be achieved? Ensuring that students, rather than CalSERVE and Student Action party bosses, dictate who represents them in the Senate is a critical first step in the effort to reduce the partisan hold on the ASUC and to re-focus its efforts on real issues.

In pursuit of that aim, the incoming senate should take up the issue of altering the drop system to prevent common abuses like the ones we're now witnessing. Since the system must remain in some form, the public tabulation of the election results should be set as the deadline for candidates to drop.

It's too late to eliminate the partisan hold of the current senate, as demonstrated by the ongoing controversy over the strategic dropping of candidates. Next year's officials who enter the ASUC with a clean slate (and for some students, a "mandate" to bring change to the system) should make good on their campaign promises by immediately addressing this clear issue of manipulation of the system to achieve partisan ends.

Tags: ASUC ELECTIONS