Elections Commission addresses GM Week election

The Elections Commission spoke to the Student Senate to address concerns regarding the most recent Grand Marshal Week elections, both in the voting process and the information released. The presentation was meant to explain some of the issues that appeared during the elections, as well as how they should be addressed in the future. Since the presentation contained sensitive information about the results of the GM Week elections, the meeting was closed to the public after a short question-and-answer session with visitors.

The Poly’s Senior Managing Editor Nilay Kapadia ’26 questioned the decision to withhold information about the results of the original vote, to which the Senate expressed their desire to keep the upcoming election for Grand Marshal as unbiased as possible. The Elections Commission stated that releasing more information from a non-certified election could potentially affect voting decisions within the student body. While further details concerning the total number of votes and the margins between candidates are not yet public, the Elections Commission assured that extensive scrutiny of the results with outside consultation determined that the outcome was indeed inconclusive for the position of Grand Marshal. More information about the election results for both GM and PU will be released alongside the upcoming election results.

After the presentation, the meeting was reopened. Some members of the Senate expressed their concerns that Grand Marshal Ben Viner ’24 openly endorsed Rost-Nasshan, given that no other Grand Marshal has ever done this. The Senate discussed potential steps that could be taken to prevent future GMs from endorsing potential successors.

This Senate Meeting was held on March 25. The Senate meets every Monday at 8 pm in the Shelnutt Gallery.