USG Elections Commission finds Mai & Brianna ticket did not commit infraction


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The Undergraduate Student Government Elections Commission found that “no infraction occurred” with the Mai & Brianna presidential ticket after holding a hearing Monday evening, according to an official election verdict published Wednesday.

According to the verdict, an individual alleged that someone was involved with presidential candidate Mai Mizuno and vice presidential candidate Brianna Bozek’s election campaign before the official start of campaigning on Jan. 25.

“The Commission found, based on presented evidence, that the petitioners could not prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the respondent’s had violated Elections Code,” the verdict said. “The Mai & Brianna ticket bears no accountability for the evidence presented during this hearing.”

A source within USG explained to the Daily Trojan that the reporting party alleged Mizuno’s campaign team had reached out to someone who was not a member of their five-person team to help create multimedia before campaign season officially began.

USG Senior Director of Communications Daniel Zhu confirmed that the verdict had to do with a “graphic-related” issue.

Earlier in the day, Zhu, in a statement to the Daily Trojan, had said that the verdict had been in regards to “suspicion that a candidate’s website was posted early.” He later retracted that statement.

According to the Elections Code XIII.D, “a written copy of the transcript will be released to both the general public and the press. An official copy of the transcript shall be available in the USG office for public consumption as soon as a verdict is reached.”

The Daily Trojan requested an official transcript copy of Monday’s hearing on Wednesday afternoon, but was denied.

Emily Quirke, the associate director of elections and recruitment, said the Monday hearing had not yet been transcribed. Quirke and Zhu both said USG would try to make the transcript available to the public within 24 hours. Zhu attributed the delay to technical difficulties.

Zhu added that USG is “thinking of ways to speed up the process” of sharing hearing transcripts in the future. He did not specify what sanctions, if any, would be imposed on the commission for violating Elections Code XIII.D.

The Mai & Brianna ticket declined to comment on the outcome of the hearing, citing Elections Code XIII.C.2, which says that speaking to the press regarding hearings can result in a sanction for involved parties.

The Debbie & Blake presidential ticket said in a statement to the Daily Trojan: “Our team respects the decision of the Elections Committee regarding the hearing and we wish to stay neutral as we proceed into our campaign.”

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misspelled Emily Quirke’s name. It has since been updated with the correct spelling. The Daily Trojan regrets this error.