Donuts and do nots: primary election challenged over “Donuts with Candidates” event

On Monday, primary elections for both Grand Marshal and President of the Union took place through a virtual ballot. This was the first double primary for both positions in 15 years. Union members received their virtual ballot via email and had from 8 am–8 pm to vote. The Elections Commission certified the results of the primary election unanimously that evening. The Union body was notified of the results at the “Union After Dark” event, which was ongoing at the time of the certification, as well as via the GM Week 2025 Elections Discord and email.

On the afternoon of March 18, the day after the results were certified, the EC received a formal challenge of the results. Any member of the Union has the ability to challenge primary results, per the GM Week 2025 Elections Handbook. The core of the challenge stemmed from the “Donuts with Candidates” event that was held from 8:30 am–12 pm on the day of the primaries.

All candidates for both GM and PU were welcome to attend the “Donuts with Candidates” event but were not required. Christopher Roe ’26, Gavin Finn ’28, and Joseph Bowers ’25, ’26G did not attend, according to the report. Though it was designed as an informal meet-and-greet, “Donuts with Candidates” has historically been considered a campaigning event, which was confirmed by a member of the EC, the current Vice-Chair of GM week, and a previous chair at the time of the event.

The challenge specifically addressed a QR code that was given out by candidates to attendees that linked to the digital ballot. While all candidates present at the event were campaigning and sharing the QR code, Toby McDonald ’26, who later advanced in the primary election for PU, was considered to be “walking the line” by the EC. McDonald has already been sanctioned by the EC this election cycle once for improperly soliciting nomination signatures. In response to his behavior at the event, the EC prepared a specific analysis on the effect of McDonald being present on fellow PU candidates’ vote shares. The analysis had specific emphasis regarding McDonald’s impacts on his race with Bowers, which was the closest race of the primaries.

The EC came to the unanimous decision that since the “Donuts with Candidates” event did not take place within a 100 foot radius of a polling station it was, therefore, a valid campaigning location. According to their analysis, the EC unanimously ruled that there was no significant relationship between a candidate’s presence at the “Donuts with Candidates” event and their vote shares, thus invalidating the challenge.

There were also questions raised about the date of the primary elections. The primary elections were initially planned by the EC and approved by the Senate to take place on March 18, rather than March 17. However, the change of date was completely within the power of the EC, but they recognized the possibility that some candidates may not have been aware of the change in dates. They clarified their extensive efforts to inform the student body of the change in date, including their announcement in the GM Week 2025 Discord 18 days before the primaries, their inclusion of the updated date in the Election Calendar, and their update of the digital handbook. The EC concluded that they have no evidence to suggest that the earlier election date had any impact on the primary results.

The last grievance pertained to the EC’s failure to provide a sample ballot. Sample ballots are provided to verify spelling and names of candidates and to verify the presence of all candidates on the ballot. This task was made difficult for many reasons, including nomination extensions for many candidates and the difficulty of providing a sample ballot given the online platform of this year’s primaries. The EC claimed that all candidate information is currently available on the elections website, and that sample ballots could have been provided upon request, which is a loose interpretation of the current guidelines. They also emphasized that in the past four election cycles, three have failed to provide the sample ballot via paper, as was a requirement at the time. The EC issued a unanimous apology for any confusion stating they have no reason to believe that the failure to provide the sample ballot had any effect on the primary results. They also have urged the Senate to clarify the guidelines for sample ballots in the future.

Notably, the report also contains a graph and tables showing the distribution of votes for PU over the voting period. The EC had not planned to release the primary vote numbers so early, opting instead to release the results in their final report. Based on the data, Isabele Lieber ’25, ’26G came in first place amassing 46.6 percent of the votes. McDonald received 20.2 percent, Bowers 15.8 percent, and Finn 12.1 percent. These figures include write-in votes.

With none of the concerns raised against the primary elections believed to have impacted the outcomes, the results remain certified by the EC. A copy of the report can be found here.

The final election is on March 20. Poll sites this year, like in previous years, include the Union, Commons Dining Hall, and the DCC. There will also be a van traveling in and around campus collecting votes.