A Very Special, Special Election
After the first Associated Students (A.S.) elections in April, Santa Monica College (SMC) held a “special” election last week to fill the available positions. The positions include A.S. Vice President, Director of Budget Management, Director of Basic Needs, Director of Instructional Support, and one Judicial Board Member.
The official winners of the election were the following individuals:
Vice President: Michael Helfand
A.S. Director of Budget Management: Jordan Davis
A.S. Judicial Board Member: Javier Rodriguez
The A.S. has yet to announce the winner of the Director of Basic Need and Director of Instructional Support and has attempted to black out the vote tallies. However, the numbers were still available.
The vote count for the Director of Basic Needs is the following:
Bhargav Motka - 93
Kalyn Standifer - 151
Stefani Hernandez - 478
Jingbo Zhang - 58
Ananda Zhandov - 56
The only Director of Instructional Support candidate, Brenda Carrasco, had 710 votes.
Carasco and Hernandez campaigned together under the “Visions 4 SMC” slate and were both present at a Special Election Committee meeting on May 28.
A part of the meeting’s agenda included “Addressing Campaign Violations”. One of the violations was that a current A.S. Director publicly endorsed "the slate," as Associate Dean of Student Life Thomas Bui said. The committee voted this as a minor violation. Another violation was that the candidates took the voters’ phones and voted on behalf of them. The committee voted this as a major violation.
Although the agenda also included “Announce 2024-2025 Election Results”, the next official stage for the election requires the violations to go to the Student Judicial Affairs for review. After review, the results may be announced according to Inter-Club Council chair Riddh Bunyay.
Hernandez confirmed that the major violation was investigating her actions, but claimed it was unfounded. She said in a written statement to the Corsair, "There's footage of me holding students’ devices but it was for the purpose of guiding students to the associated students website and instagram." She stated students are not aware of the A.S., hence the reason there was a need for a second election to fill vacancies after the first election.
The 936 students who voted in the special election represented 3 times more voters than in the original election.
