Student Elections

The all-minority slate that won a Cal State Northridge student government election last month held on to its disputed victory Tuesday, but perhaps only temporarily. A student-run elections committee concluded that the way the regulations are written, the minority slate could not be disqualified, despite several campaign violations. But at its meeting next week, the student senate will vote on whether to hold a new election.

The results of Glendale Community College's recent student body elections are in limbo, awaiting the outcome of a probe into allegations of illegal campaign tactics. Four candidates for Associated Student Body offices filed a grievance with the college's judicial review board last week, saying they witnessed a campaign worker for incumbent ASB president Arthur Katchatourians instructing students how to vote on election day.

When freshman students at Aliso Niguel High School vote for class representatives this week, they will cast their ballots electronically. Voting with the school's new high-tech ballot box system "will be a little more exciting and accessible for students," said John Pehrson, the school's activities director. In the past, he said, students checked off boxes next to candidates' names on a "Scantron" form.

Eyeing a selection of $6 sunglasses in the campus quad, his BMX bike at his side, Cal State Northridge graphic design student Jered Sodt explained why he wouldn't be voting in this week's student elections. "I just don't care," the 20-year-old said with conviction. Besides, he added, "I voted last time, and the guy lost." If campaign workers around the city were lamenting yet another local election with low voter turnout Tuesday and searching for answers, they might look to the CSUN campus.

A week after being disqualified as a candidate for Canyon High School student body president because he distributed condoms to classmates along with his campaign literature, Patrick Lee is determined to make a political comeback. Lee, 17, of Anaheim Hills, said Saturday that he will run for senior class president in this month's school elections.

After five hours of angry debate, the Cal State Northridge student senate Tuesday delayed a decision on the controversial student government elections won by an all-minority slate of candidates. By delaying the discussion until next Tuesday, the senators kept the controversy at full boil for at least another week. "We're at an impasse here," said Associated Students President Brad Marsh.

It's not ended yet. The seesaw battle over the Cal State Northridge student government election will continue today at a student senate session. The student senate will decide whether to allow the incumbent party to retain control for the period beginning June 1. The alternative is to turn power over to another slate, which has been accused of violating school election rules prior to its victory at the polls in March.

Allegations of unfair electioneering and complaints that administrators prevented candidates from speaking about their opponents threatened to postpone or even nullify the results of this week's Associated Student Body elections, a Glendale College official said Wednesday.

Maroun Kisirwani tried everything to keep toxic national politics from seeping into student elections at the American University of Beirut -- only to find the army deployed at the university gate this week, fearful that campus politics could destabilize the country. Kisirwani, the harried dean of student affairs, banned visitors, even alumni, from the campus. He outlawed militia flags and photographs of Lebanon's communal patriarchs. He warned against religious slurs.

The election of an all-minority student government has set off a brouhaha at Cal State Northridge in which the winners are accused of election tampering, the losers of racism and faculty and staff members are being investigated for allegedly coercing students to back the winning slate. The accusations against the winning slate--We the People, headed by student body President-elect Joaquin Macias--could cost it the election.