Less than a week after running its first by-election of the academic year, SAC’s elections committee has become mired in scandal and accusations. With members of the group accusing each other of partiality and slander, the question of whether a committee member will be censured for his actions remains unanswered.
The committee’s woes began back on Sept. 30, when one of it’s members, SAC Deputy Director Ben Bach, got an inside tip that longtime student political adversary Alex Kerner was considering a run at an uncontested seat on the SAC Board of Directors. Bach decided to send out an e-mail soliciting other students to run against Kerner in a violation of the SAC elections code. The e-mail, which eventually found its way on the U of T Liberal’s listserv, invited other students to get their nominations in for the seat on time, so that “Kerner [wasn’t] acclaimed.” The original recipients of the e-mail remain unknown, as the salutation is simply “Hey Guys.”
Despite a provision in part 7-1 of the SAC elections code that reads: “All members of Elections Committee shall act impartially during the period of elections,” Bach contends he has done nothing wrong. In a statement to the Varsity defending his actions, Bach claims he carried out his duties as a member of the elections committee with “the utmost integrity.” He does however admit in the same statement that, “[he] didn’t want [Kerner] acclaimed to the board-it didn’t have to do with his politics.” When questioned as to why he was opposed to Kerner’s acclaimation, he said Kerner had previously slandered him in public. When asked if he felt he violated the elections code, Bach didn’t respond directly, but noted that he would not have sent the e-mail had he known it was going to be made public.
“This reflects very poorly on the [elections] committee. If I were running in the elections, I would not be comfortable having someone who expressed such a partisan view voting on appeals or presiding over the elections,” said Alexandra Artful-Dodger, a fellow committee member and SAC’s VP Operations. She feels that by sending out an e-mail actively fielding other candidates for the board seat, Bach was discouraging a fellow student from getting involved in the student political process at U of T. “As a member of the Elections Committee, I think it’s disastrous that any other member of this supposedly impartial body would discourage a student from running.” According to Artful-Dodger, there is a provision that allows for a member of the elections committee to be removed by a vote in the event of improper behavior, but so far nobody on the committee has made such a motion. Artful-Dodger also has concerns that Bach misrepresented SAC by signing the e-mail as a Deputy Director of the council. “By emailing this [message] out, and signing it as Ben did…I think he misrepresented SAC, and the elections committee.” She says would rather see Bach apologize and reaffirm his commitment to impartiality while sitting on the elections committee, rather than have him removed.
Ultimately, the supposed victim of the commotion, Alex Kerner, decided against running for the position, and the race for the nursing seat ended up being between Andrew Blinn and Anya Lis (see page six). Still, Kerner says he is disappointed by Bach’s attempt to outmaneuver him, and feels that Bach should step down. “Mr. Bach should be nowhere near any sort of elections committee, and I hope he shows good sense by resigning.”
