Kiwi Krew holds onto CCSC win despite candidate appeal

In a crowded race for the top slots, Conan Cassidy and Joanna Kelly, both CC ’14, were elected to the Columbia College Student Council as first-year class president and vice president on Wednesday. Nearly their entire ticket, Kiwi Krew, won with them. But as they were celebrating, Matthew Chou’s The Party kept on kicking.

Chou, CC ’14 and candidate for class president on The Party’s ticket, appealed the decision to the Elections Board in hopes of a re-election.

“In the end, I want to clarify that, though I obviously want to win this election, my main intent is merely to give myself (and, perhaps, the student body?) peace of mind in the knowledge of the legitimacy of their student government,” Chou wrote.

He argued that the election had not been advertised enough, pointing to low voter turnout as evidence. A little over 250 voted out of about 1,100 current first-years. Chou claimed that first-years weren’t told how to vote and had been hindered by “rules ambiguity,” which prevented them from “getting out the vote.” Unaware that he was allowed to send out reminders to vote, Chou said he lost valuable ground by not texting people he knew in the dorms with the link to the voting site, and blamed students losing the correct voting email in the “depths of their CUBMail” for loss of votes.

“It was only until last night, when I saw the Kiwi Krew organize a coordinated status spam of all their Facebook pages, that I heard that the moratorium ban on ‘web content,’ which ‘includes but is not limited to Facebook/Gchat/Gmail/AIM status, emails and text messaging’ was allowed,” he wrote. “I hurriedly threw something together, but I believe the damage had already been done.”
He also wrote that the bio outlining their party positions was badly formatted during voting, and looked “wholly unprofessional.”

None of this swayed the Elections Board, which shot down Chou’s points in a response email. The elections were fully advertised through the first-year dorms, board chair Alex Rosen, CC ’11, wrote, and first-year voter turnout is usually this low.

Also, they said Chou’s misunderstanding of the rules was not due to lack of explanation. “The Elections Board held a rules meeting on Sunday, September 12 where we explained the rules. At this meeting, we explained how the rules are interpreted and that actions like those of the Kiwi Krew were acceptable. Further, the Elections Board is always available by email, and you were welcome to email us at any time for a clarification of the rule,” Rosen said.

Additionally, the voting sites format all the party platforms in the same way.

“The Elections Board believes firmly in the legitimacy of these elections. We believe that the elections and associated events were advertised and that voting was legitimate. As such, we are denying your appeal,” Rosen concluded.

Roko Rumora, Daphne Chen, and Cristal James, who ousted Kiwi Krew candidate Jessica Eaton, will all serve as class representatives.

alix.pianin@columbiaspectator.com