A settlement over allegations of unfair elections filed by Andrei Khots '05 and Sarah Farhadian '07 against the Union Elections Commission was reached Saturday afternoon shortly before a scheduled Union Judiciary hearing.Farhadian was the candidate who lost the East Quad election in the final round after receiving a majority of votes in the primary round.

The settlement appeased the plantiffs' main complaint that because those who won in the Village, Ridgewood and Grad Quads did not receive a mandate, another round should have been run with the option to vote for each leading candidate or to abstain on the ballot.

Khots said a mandate indicates a candidate receiving over 50 percent of votes, as occurred in the North Quad election. The settlement stipulates new elections for the three quads will occur within ten academic days.

Elections Commissioner and Class of 2007 Senator Albert Cahn said that precedent allows for large discretion in determining mandates. He said while Khots and Farhadian made a valid complaint in this matter, the scope of injury was negligible and elections for the three quads should not need to occur again.

"It has been the practice of the Union Judiciary to find that when all candidates are equally disadvantaged with an issue in an election, that election shall stand as valid," Cahn said.

Khots said Miriam Sievers '06, who won the Village election as a write-in candidate, for instance, received four out of a possible 26 votes; he subtracted three abstentions from the tally. He said she won approximately 15 percent of the vote to beat the number of abstentions, which qualifies candidates to advance into another round. But he said this was not over half of the electorate.

According to Khots, it was also wrong to allow a graduate student to vote in the Village election because the constitution states only undergraduates may cast a ballot in Union elections. In such a close race, he said this one vote carried more weight and could have swayed the election.

"This is just wrong," Khots said. "It is specifically stated that only undergraduates can vote to elect their representatives."

Khots also blamed the Elections Commission for not having a link to vote for write-in candidates for the Village, Ridgewood and Grad Quad balloting system until midway through the election. He said the polls opened at noon on Sept. 24, but the link to vote did not appear until nine hours later.

"There is an obligation to rerun this election," Khots said. "Voters were disenfranchised because they did not think they were able to vote."

Cahn said that while not having the link for the three quads contributed to possible lower voter turnout, it was still possible to cast a ballot. He said students could have selected additional positions on the balloting system, offering clear instructions on how to vote for their quad.

"Some students probably did not vote because of the confusion," Cahn said. "But some students still found the full elections page with all of the open positions."

Since the Elections Commission originally declared candidates who received the most votes in these quads as winners, Khots said it did not follow suit for there to be a second round in East Quad, where Farhadian won the most votes in the primary round but lost in the final.

Khots said it made sense for Farhadian and Aaron Braver '07, the candidate who came in second in the East Quad primaries, to advance to the finals. But he said the Elections Commission did not provide a reason as to why Sean Patrick Hogan '07, who also won more votes than the number of abstentions, also did not advance to the final round.

Khots said Farhadian beat her two other opponents with the highest number of votes and could have been declared the winner had the Elections Commissioners set in advance the percentage of votes required to win an election in the first round.

"The constitution only states you must have the highest number of votes in an election to win," Khots said.

But this complaint was not appeased because of the 1999 Union Judiciary case Schapira v. Peck, which stipulates that the function of the primary round is to narrow the number of candidates to twice the number of positions in contention. For instance, if two open spots for the same title were in contention, there would be four candidates in the final round.

"The function of the final elections is to ensure that one candidate will receive a mandate," part of the case summary states. "In order for this to hold true, the final ballot should include the top two vote-getters [both declared and write-in candidates] such that the ballot contains twice the number of available positions, as well as the abstention option [where one position is at stake]."

The settlement also states that Khots and Farhadian will be appointed to the Presidential Balloting and Voting task force to decide the best way to help ensure fair elections.

According to this clause, Khots and Farhadian will also have "broad discretion in deciding how to apply the power and authority of the executive branch to overcome the systematic defects and deficiencies of the Brandeis Student Union election procedure."

Cahn said appointing Khots and Farhadian to the task force was the most effective and efficient way of reaching a settlement.

"I believe Farhadian has a legitimate desire to improve the efficiency, advocacy and legitimacy of future Union elections," Cahn said.


Editor's Note: Igor Pedan '05, the chief justice of the Union Judiciary, is also an associate editor of the Justice.