The results of ASWC’s 2021-22 Presidential election were released last week. Thanks to the work of this year’s Oversight Chair (who humbly chose to be unnamed) it was totally free of fraudulent voting; a pervasive issue since the first ASWC election back in 1861 where Jehbidia Greenwald defeated Johnathan William Gregorious 8 to 5.5. The lack of complaints about this recent election has led the Wire to explore notable ASWC campaign scandals of the last 100 years. 

The 1973 election shook campus to its core. Three students connected to the campaign of junior, Richard Jackson, were caught breaking into the Jewett dorm room of his opponent, Brett Lewis, attempting to steal homemade campaign posters. Jackson dropped out of the race before any sanctions could be levied. However, this election didn’t stop being scandalous. On election day, Lewis was spotted dropping off an unmarked bag into the ASWC office, later discovered to be full of fraudulent ballots. He was disqualified from election, which meant that there were no candidates, leaving the school without ASWC that year, which many scholars attribute to the national economic recession of the 1980s.

Even in years with much less action, like the uncontested presidential races of 2019 and 2020, students suspected foul play. Knowing the complicated history of the ASWC presidential elections, this year’s Oversight Chair stayed up for 72 consecutive hours watching each vote come in to make sure that no shenanigans took place. Juli Dunn also helped fight election fraud by introducing Whitlife as the voting platform, a digital tool being used to connect campus throughout a period of remote learning. Whitlife is so fucking hard to use that no one could possibly figure it out well enough to commit voter fraud, except for maybe the Oversight Chair. That dude is so smart.

 Hopefully, in the future, this trend of diligently ensuring a fair election by the heroic Oversight Chair can continue for the sake of the candidates and the one out of every five students who actually votes.