Whereas, Section 104 of the Election Rules of the Student Assembly, adopted by the Elections Committee on March 16, 2026, requires every candidate to submit a Petition for Candidacy bearing at least 30 signatures for a school representative seat, 50 signatures for an at-large seat, and 70 signatures for President;
Whereas, Section 102(A)(3) makes submission of a petition for candidacy a condition of candidate eligibility, and Section 104(B) provides that failure to complete the petition by the deadline set by the Director of Elections will result in disqualification or other action;
Whereas, the only relief the Election Rules currently provide, in Section 104(C), applies when every candidate for a position falls short of the requirement, and even then permits only those who have collected 75% of the required signatures to run;
Whereas, the Election Rules give the Director of Elections no means of responding to a cycle in which the petitioning requirement itself, rather than a lack of interest, is keeping eligible students off the ballot;
Whereas, the fall election cycle runs on a compressed calendar and may include seats representing the freshman and transfer student populations, whose members have had only weeks on campus to build the networks that signature collection depends on;
Whereas, uncontested and unfilled seats weaken the representative character of the Assembly, and the Preamble to the Election Rules commits the Assembly to an election process that takes place in an open and fair arena;
Whereas, a candidate who runs under a waiver remains bound by every other provision of the Election Rules, including the eligibility requirements of Section 102, the registration requirements of Section 103, and the objections process of Article III;
Whereas, the Director of the Office of Elections, who oversees each cycle from registration through the declaration of results, is best positioned to judge whether the petitioning requirement is serving its purpose in a given cycle;
Be it therefore resolved, that Section 104 of the Election Rules of the Student Assembly is amended by adding a new Subsection D, to read: “D. The Director for the Office of Elections reserves the right to waive candidate petitioning requirements at their discretion in the event that waiving such requirement is deemed valuable to conducting a robust and engaged election cycle.”;
Be it further resolved, that Section 102(A)(3) of the Election Rules is amended to read: “(3) Submit a completed candidate registration form and, unless waived under § 104(D), a petition for candidacy;” so that no candidate running under a waiver is rendered ineligible;
Be it further resolved, that in reviewing each candidate’s registration under Section 119, the Office of the Assemblies and the Elections Committee shall treat any candidate covered by a waiver issued under Section 104(D) as having satisfied Section 104;
Be it finally resolved, that these amendments shall take effect immediately upon adoption and shall apply to the Fall 2026 election cycle and every election cycle thereafter.
Respectfully Submitted,
Eeshaan Chaudhuri '27
President, Student Assembly
Sophia Trapani '27
Director of the Office of Elections, Student Assembly
Appendix A: Amended Text of the Election Rules
Additions are underlined.
§ 102. Candidate Eligibility and Requirements.
A. To be a candidate for Student Assembly or University Assembly office, an individual, at the time of the registration specified in the election calendar, must:
(3) Submit a completed candidate registration form and, unless waived under § 104(D), a petition for candidacy;
§ 104. Petition for Candidacy.
A. All candidates shall submit a Petition for Candidacy containing the following:
(1) For school representative: candidates will collect at minimum 30 signatures from undergraduate students enrolled in the school they wish to represent;
(2) For at-large representative: candidates will collect at minimum 50 signatures from any member of the undergraduate student body;
(3) For President: candidates will collect at minimum 70 signatures from any member of the undergraduate student body;
B. The signatures shall be compiled electronically by the candidates and completed by a date set by the Elections Director. Failure to do so will result in disqualification or other action decided by the Elections Director.
C. Should all potential candidates for a specific position fail to meet the petitioning requirement, all candidates who have fulfilled 75% of the requirement will be permitted to run. Should any one candidate successfully complete the whole requirement, this does not apply.
D. The Director for the Office of Elections reserves the right to waive candidate petitioning requirements at their discretion in the event that waiving such requirement is deemed valuable to conducting a robust and engaged election cycle.
