Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Who's on First?
Not really.
So who's next in line for a Senate seat if John Moghtader does get recalled? The answer isn't entirely clear. The Constitution says:
In the event of a vacancy in the ASUC Senate, the person receiving the greatest number of votes for Senator, who did not become a Senator, shall assume the vacated office. What counts as a vote a Senate candidate received? With a single transferable vote, Senate candidates receive and lose votes throughout the process. At the end of the process, those who didn't win don't have any votes.
One answer is to give it to the last candidate eliminated, which has been current process. This year, that's Brad Froehle, who has said he won't take the position. After him comes Marcus Caimi (of Student Action). This can be read consistently with the Constitution if you say that the last candidate eliminated had, at some point, held the greatest number of votes among those who didn't win.
Still, there are many other ways to read it. If you count first place votes, for instance, next up is still Froehle, but the next in line after him is now Yuna Shin (also of Student Action). If you count number of ballots on which a candidate received a vote in some position, I believe it's Andy Kelley (CalSERVE). The whole vote transfer system breaks anyway, now that there's a candidate who absorbed a lot of votes (which didn't transfer) who isn't in the Senate. Should those voters get a say?
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