Elections Board Vice Chair Andy Xu (20C) resigned from his position on April 4 in the wake of Former Elections Board Chair Betty Zhang (20C)’s forced resignation and a contentious election cycle for the Board.
Xu said that he and Zhang both submitted their resignations “around the same time.” If both the offices of the chair and the vice chair are vacant, the treasurer serves as acting chair until a replacement is found, according to Part II, Article 9, Section 3 of the Elections Code.
Xu told the Wheel that the Board does not have a treasurer because “we have no funding.”
If the chair, the vice chair and the treasurer positions are vacant, the secretary serves as acting chair and must inform the Student Government Association (SGA) president and the speaker of the legislature. The president then has 72 hours to fill the position by emergency appointment, who serves as chair until a nominee is approved by the legislature, according to Title XI of the SGA Code.
Manushi Ashar (20C) is currently the secretary of the Elections Board, according to Xu. Ashar did not respond to request for comment.
No one is currently serving as the chair of the Elections Board, SGA President Dwight Ma (17Ox, 19C) wrote in an April 10 email to the Wheel. Xu also said that he did “not think there is an acting chair right now.”
Xu’s resignation came after the Board was involved in controversy for allowing late declarers Mario Karras (17Ox, 19B), Karen Lee (21C) and Radhika Kadakia (20C) to run in the Spring elections and a student petition that garnered more than 300 signatures to recall the elections due to the Board’s “ethical misgivings.”
“My voluntary decision to resign will not impact the operation of [the] Elections Board in a large scale. I’m also confident in the next SGA administration team,” Xu wrote in his resignation letter. “It has been a privilege and honor to serve you all during the past three elections.”
