On Monday, May 21, the Associated Students of Portland State University elections board moved to dismiss presidential candidate Diamond Zerework due to campaign infractions, consequently delaying public release of election results. The results for the elections were originally scheduled to be released on May 22.
On Monday, May 21, the Associated Students of Portland State University elections board moved to dismiss presidential candidate Diamond Zerework due to campaign infractions, consequently delaying public release of election results. The results for the elections were originally scheduled to be released on May 22.
On Tuesday, May 22, the ASPSU judicial board overturned the elections board’s dismissal due to a violation with Oregon Public Meeting Law, reinstating Zerework as a candidate for ASPSU president. The elections board then held a second infractions hearing for Zerework, wherein she was found to remain eligible.
Jesse Hansen, chair of the elections board, highlighted the reason for the judicial board vote and the additional infractions hearing: “We didn’t act in accordance with Oregon meeting law during the hearing of Diamond’s infractions. [The judicial board] recommended we hold a new hearing where we act in accordance with the law,” Hansen said.
The problem, according to Hanson, was that Zerework was confused about her charges. “The judicial board was challenging the election board’s accordance with Oregon Public Meeting Law. We apparently had adjourned and reconvened without letting Diamond know,” Hansen explained. “She didn’t understand that she was having infractions filed against her.”
Zerework felt that the elections board acted in violation of official elections board conduct. “Infractions issued against me were heard randomly and immediately voted on without a fair accommodation process,” she said. “It was all fellow senators—members of ASPSU that filed every infraction against me, and there were a bunch of frivolous infractions filed against me; the vast majority of them were thrown out. One was chalking, another one was postering. But they ruled today that I did not file any frivolous infractions against everyone else. I only filed one, which was very valid and deserved to be investigated,” Zerework added.
The initial dismissal occurred due to four separate infractions filed against Zerework for acts committed during her campaign for ASPSU executive office. The infractions included publicly lying about obtaining official faculty and PSU resource campaign endorsements, a member of her campaign being suspiciously and illegally close to an official ASPSU polling station—specifically zero feet away, that she was campaigning in the library and for filing false infractions against other candidates. Other possible violations may have occurred, but the infractions were not pursued. An official public release from the ASPSU elections board states: “There were several other charges against Zerework that lacked overwhelming evidence, but the elections board elected not to pursue the claims.”
“It comes as no surprise that Diamond Zerework ha[d] been removed from the ballot,” said presidential candidate Ethan Allen Smith. “Zerework was relentlessly attacked by her fellow ASPSU officers…During the presidential debate, the unethical and repulsive behavior of our ASPSU officers was on full display, as they mocked, booed, yelled at and interrupted Sen. Zerework.”
In a message posted on Facebook, ASPSU senator Bearnard Kenyon wrote about Zerework’s candidacy eligibility: “We don’t know yet, it also depends on Diamond’s appeal. She could win in the judicial board meeting at 4 p.m. If she actually manages to win it will go to the senate. I’d say the odds are slightly in our favor that we have 3/4 of the senate willing to overrule the j-board (again, sigh) and throw her out of the race if they make a mistake and keep her. They will not be announcing anything until after the appeal in the senate (if she loses in the j-board, she will appeal to the senate AND WILL GO DOWN IN FLAMES) so we’ll know tomorrow night since there will be an appeal either way. If she is thrown out, we will never know if she actually won because the votes will not be counted, but rumor has it she did, baseless as rumor often is for what it’s worth.”
Kenyon did not respond to requests for comment prior to publication.
“I don’t condone the hateful comments in Bearnard’s message,” Tiffany Dollar, ASPSU president-elect, said when asked to comment. “I always support women in leadership positions, especially women from underrepresented communities, such as women of color,” she added.
“There has been a lot of dirty politics, everyone has picked sides,” Zerework said.
So, I’d like to mention that the Vanguard pulled that from my private facebook page unethically and possibly in violation of PSU policy and the law and invaded my privacy. They also gave me less than THREE HOURS to respond by e-mail to those comments and I did extensively respond and tell them not to use anything without my permission. That was based on information that I had at the time and I clarified my remarks extensively. The j board surprised me and convinced me fully. They made the right ruling on Ms. Zerework and I have the integrity to admit that. That’s why no one tried to overrule the judicial board on that ruling.
So sue me, I’m the bad guy, I saw a candidate trying to lie and cheat her way to victory by breaking almost every single rule in the book and lying about issues of fact repeatedly and I tried to hold her accountable. I saw a candidate who thought that she could break every rule and that there was no one to hold her accountable because your elections board grossly failed in their duties of making sure that you have a fair election and looked the other way repeatedly. They threw out multiple infractions that were substantiated with evidence and she even repeated some of the same infractions she had been hit with but they decided not to hold her accountable. Your elections board chair was even witness to an infraction and refused to come forward because he didn’t feel it was his job to police the election (which is very much his job by the way. Even when someone else filed the infraction and he already admitted in a public meeting that he was a witness to it). Oh, and it is worth bringing up that the candidate was nearly thrown out of the election anyway for the infractions that she was miraculously convicted of. I even think that the final infraction they hit her with was crap and I’m glad the e board changed its mind on that particular decision and I think they did the right thing on that if little else. I’ll give them credit where credit is due.
All that I’ve learned in my time in ASPSU is that if you try to follow the rules and hold ASPSU accountable for all of that money from the student fee that we handle the more hell you will get for it. I’ve been trying to make sure that you’re student government actually did its freaking job and had a fair election and now I’m getting sniped at and having my privacy invaded. Also, where was the Vanguard during the election on this issue? There was no media to hold the candidates accountable and that is a shame for the student body when you had a candidate campaigning in computer labs (they are polling stations in our bylaws), having a member of her slate tell people how to vote at the polls (the public laptops ASPSU had on the quad), and claiming to be endorsed by resource centers when they cannot do that. And that’s just what she was convicted of; don’t even get me started on the things the e board decided to overlook.
Stop crying bro. It’s just a school election. Most people have real problems. Your long comment is comedy.