Jayden Davis (25B) said he plans to appeal the Student Government Association’s (SGA) Election Board’s decision to “dismiss all of the evidence” of his allegations of election misconduct against SGA President-elect Abigail Dubinski (25B) to the Constitutional Council, Davis wrote in an email to The Emory Wheel. Davis plans to file the appeal by tomorrow evening, following the Board’s hearing this past Sunday.
“I personally believe the Board is biased regarding the situation, and has been throughout the duration of this election, leaving them complicit in adjudicating many of the violations the Abigail and Pranay campaign committed,” Davis wrote. “Further, during this hearing they violated many of the rules outlined in their very own Code; exemplifying the negligent stance the Board has taken during this election cycle.”
Elections Board Chair Luxe Langmade (22Ox, 24C) wrote in an email to the Wheel that she has to remain neutral in her position and cannot comment on the situation. Elections Board Vice Chair Ananya Singh (22Ox, 25C) and Constitutional Council Chief Justice Kardelen Ergul (24C) also declined to comment.
Jayden Davis (25B) and SGA President-elect Abigail Dubinski (25B) speak at the 12th annual Wheel Debates on Feb. 23. (Alya Khoury/Staff Photographer)
According to election results released on March 1, Davis lost the race to Dubinski after receiving 561 (30.16%) of the 1,860 votes cast while Dubinski received 1,059 (56.93%) votes. Unique “Jaytrice” Mackey (22Ox, 25C) garnered 65 (3.49%) votes. In total, 175 (9.4%) students voted “no confidence.”
Davis’ campaign manager, Elijah Robuck (26C), filed several accusations of election misconduct against Dubinski and SGA Vice President-elect Pranay Mamileti’s (25B) campaign on March 2, according to a list of filed violations and challenges compiled by the Elections Board and obtained by the Wheel. The charges, which include bribery, voter intimidation, fraud and harassment, gave the Dubinski-Mamileti campaign a “huge boost in the polls, which cost Jayden the election,” according to the complaint.
However, during a private March 3 hearing, the Elections Board rejected the Davis campaign’s claims.
The Board dismissed the campaign’s two claims of fraud, as fraud is handled by student conduct offices and the Board does not have the jurisdiction to render a decision.
The Davis campaign’s first claim of fraud alleged that although Dubinski said she reached out to students in response to the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, her campaign never connected with Palestinian, Muslim and Arab students. The complaint cited three statements from members of Emory Stop Cop City, Muslim Students Association and Students for Justice in Palestine, all of whom denied that Dubinski contacted them.
The Davis campaign also alleged that Dubinski committed fraud by claiming to support all students in campaign materials while refusing to sign onto an unsent October 2023 SGA letter because it included the word “Palestine.” The letter was intended to offer resources and support to students in light of the war in Gaza.
The allegations were made public when an early draft of the Wheel’s Editorial Board endorsement piece for the SGA presidential election was leaked on Fizz. These accusations were not included in the piece as they could not be substantiated at press time.
The complaint included texts between Graduate Student Government Association President Neeti Patel (24PH) and current SGA President Khegan Meyers (24B). Patel sent the Wheel screenshots of her texts with Meyers, who wrote in one of the messages that Dubinski “made a big stink” about changing the word “Gaza” to “Palestine” in the letter so the wording would match Provost and Executive Vice President Ravi Bellamkonda’s statement.
In response to these allegations, Dubinski wrote in an email to the Wheel that the “stream of attacks” she has been facing have a “strong underlying current of antisemitism.”
“Someone wanted to change the language in the draft from Gaza to Palestine, and I said we should match the Provost’s letter, and if we wanted to mention the Palestinian people as well, we should,” Dubinski wrote. “There is no story here, and manufacturing a scandal here is beneath everyone.”
Meyers said in a March 5 statement to the Wheel that SGA was ready to send the letter — which Abigail and “nearly all” SGA members ultimately signed — but did not publish the message as it would have come out after University President Gregory Fenves’ letter decrying an Oct. 25, 2023 student protest for using “antisemitic phrases.”
“The resolution was never introduced, as the consensus was that our message, though well-intended, would not be appropriate given President Fenves’ message and its resulting impact to students,” Meyers wrote.
Davis’ campaign alleged that the Letter to the Editor Mamileti published in the Wheel expressing discontent with the Editorial Board’s decision to not endorse either candidate in the SGA presidential election made it seem as though he had no response and the Dubinski-Mamileti campaign did, which Davis believes “heavily hindered” his campaign. Davis also claimed that he heard from multiple students that the article influenced their decision and gave the Dubinski-Mamileti a “boost.”
This came after Langmade filed a complaint against Dubinski and Mamileti on Feb. 29 for publishing the letter, which was considered unapproved campaign material. The Board had already imposed a Tier 2 penalty on Dubinski and Mamileti in light of Langmade’s complaint, resulting in a temporary suspension of their campaign, so the Board decided that no further action was necessary following Davis’ complaints.
The Davis campaign further alleged that the supporters of the Dubinski campaign handed out bagels alongside Emory Hillel to bribe students for votes on Feb. 29, a claim that the Board found “lacks substantive evidence.”
“There is a notable absence of testimony from any students regarding the alleged incident,” the Board wrote. “Furthermore, it is important to clarify that the matter does not fall within the purview of this board’s jurisdiction to make a decision.”
The complaint also cited text messages where students claimed the Dubinski campaign pressured them to vote during Wonderful Wednesday. However, the Board found that there are “insufficient grounds” to support the claims that Dubinski allegedly coerced 498 people into voting and Mamileti allegedly coerced approximately 1,000 people.
Even if such actions were taken, they did not significantly impact the results of the election, the Board wrote.
Additionally, the Davis campaign alleged that the Dubinski campaign included the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s name in their campaign materials without consent, but the Board dismissed the charge. Davis also previously included Sexual Assault Peer Advocates (SAPA) in his Instagram campaign materials without asking the group for permission. He later removed the post and replaced it with materials that do not include SAPA.
The Dubinski-Mamileti campaign claimed ignorance of the Elections Code as a reason for the listed violations, according to Davis’ complaint. However, the Board found that “there is no substantiated evidence” to support the claim.
The complaint also alleges broad bias within the Elections Board itself, as members have previously worked with Dubinski. Davis’ campaign alleged that this caused Davis to receive a “stricter punishment,” while Dubinski’s campaign received a “lighter punishment.”
However, the Board dismissed this claim, stating that they are committed to “upholding the highest standards of professionalism and impartiality” in their decisions. All three Board members named in the complaint, including Langmade, BBA Council President Michael Chan (24B) and College Council President Neha Murthy (24C), recused themselves from the decision at the March 3 hearing.
Members of the Elections Board must sign a commitment to neutrality upon their installation.
The Board also dismissed claims of coercion against students to create endorsement videos for Dubinski due to a “lack of student testimony regarding the alleged incident.”
However, Davis asserted that there was “overwhelming” evidence for Dubinski’s campaign violations, noting that they “definitely swayed” the election results. Davis added that he and Robuck spoke to over 20 people to gather evidence regarding the allegations.
“I really don’t want this to be viewed as retaliatory cause that’s really not what it’s about at the end of the day,” Robuck said. “I really was hoping that these violations wouldn’t have an effect on the campaign and we wouldn’t have had to escalate it to this.”
Dubinski denied the Davis campaign’s accusations in an email to the Wheel.
“All of Jayden’s charges are baseless and were thrown out at the hearing their team asked for,” Dubinski wrote. “Some of them were downright offensive and openly antisemitic. Emory is better than this, and I look forward to serving our community as I have done throughout my time here.”
Five other complaints have been lodged in this SGA election cycle — four against the Davis campaign and one against the Dubinski-Mamileti campaign — ranging from unauthorized campaigning to posting false claims. Three of the five resulted in penalties against the candidates, with two against the Davis campaign and one against the Dubinski-Mamileti campaign.
In a prior violation claim, SGA Speaker MaKenzie Jones (22Ox, 24C) filed a complaint against Davis’ campaign on Feb. 27, stating that Patel allegedly harassed Mamileti at the farmer’s market on Feb. 27 and violated SGA’s Code of Elections. The Elections Board issued a Tier 1 violation warning, which is the lowest tier of penalty reserved for accidental or minor violations, to the Davis campaign on Feb. 29.
Correction (3/6/2024 at 12:29 p.m.): A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that SGA Speaker MaKenzie Jones (22Ox, 24C) is SGA President-elect Abigail Dubinski’s (25B) campaign manager. In fact, Jones is not part of Dubinski’s campaign.
Correction (3/7/2024 at 11:10 a.m.): A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Jayden Davis’ (25B) campaign manager Elijah Robuck’s (26C) graduation year as (27C). In fact, Robuck will graduate in 2026. A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the Davis campaign complaint claimed that Dubinski allegedly coerced 498 people into voting and Mamileti allegedly coerced approximately 1,000 people. In fact, the complaint did not include this claim. The Elections Board cited the claim as reasoning “to deny the hearing.”
Correction (3/10/2024 at 4:00 p.m.): A previous version of this article included a personal email that the Elections Board later removed from their Running List of Candidate Violations document. This article has been updated to reflect the Board’s decision to remove this personal information.
Jack Rutherford (27C) is a News Editor at the Emory Wheel. He is from Louisville, Kentucky, majoring in Economics on a pre-law track. When not writing for the Wheel, he can normally be found with the Emory Rowing team or at a Schwartz Center performance. In his free time, Rutherford enjoys listening to classical music or opera, or is out walking in Lullwater.
Lauren Yee (25Ox) is a news editor at The Emory Wheel. She is from Hong Kong and is majoring in religion. Outside of the Wheel, Yee serves on the boards of the Phi Gamma Literary Society and the Oxford Ensemble of Shakespearean Artists. In her free time, you can find her playing the saxophone, watching musicals or enjoying an iced oat milk matcha!
