The Student Government Election Board has disqualified two candidates from current Student Government races and is considering a third, citing violations of the organization’s Election Code.
Presidential candidate Richard Vega and senatorial candidate Hayden Wilson have been disqualified from their races, according to Election Board Chair Nicholas Scholz. Scholz says the board is reviewing senatorial candidate Cody DeSalvo’s candidate status and will make a decision on it “tomorrow” based on the results of a hearing surrounding DeSalvo’s expulsion from Student Government.
Scholz says Vega was disqualified for failure to attend a Rules Reading Seminar in January, which Vega says he missed because the Zoom link for the meeting was sent 10 minutes before the start time, creating a conflict with a class he had scheduled. 
“I essentially self reported myself to [Scholz]; I told him that I had missed the meeting,” Vega says. 
The Student Government Code of Conduct notes that a candidate who misses the Rules Reading Seminar for a valid reason — including attendance to class — must schedule a make-up session within three class days of the missed meeting, which Scholz says Vega did not do.
Vega was notified about his disqualification on Feb. 14. He has 60 days from Jan. 19, the day of the violation, to file an appeal. Vega says he plans to continue campaigning and get an outside opinion on the violation of the rules.
But Scholz says because Vega has not yet filed an appeal and final election voting is set to take place on March 5 without Vega on the ballot, “in my mind, [the appeal] wouldn’t do too much” because he would need to receive enough votes to win the election.
Scholz says Wilson’s disqualification was a result of Wilson not submitting a financial disclosure report. He says DeSalvo’s removal from the ballot would not be “the same grounds as a disqualification.”
The Student Government Senate recently voted on Feb. 22 to remove DeSalvo as parliamentarian, the position tasked with helping to keep meetings organized, and expel him from the organization. The authors of the legislation accuse DeSalvo of collusion with Supreme Court members to prevent legislation from passing, citing Student Government Constitution Article Two, Section 1, K, to be “compassionate, benevolent, and fair.”
Sen. Matthew Smith says DeSalvo has “misrepresented the will of Student Government on social media.”
An expulsion would keep DeSalvo from being in Student Government for a year. DeSalvo, in a written statement to The University Star, says many of the senators voting to expel him have no personal experience with him.
“It doesn’t pass the smell test,” DeSalvo says. “It’s all being orchestrated behind the scenes. The authors of the expulsion couldn’t even point to evidence during the hearing. At its core, this is all retaliation to the cases I’ve brought and won in the Supreme Court.”
Students who have not voted can cast their ballots online from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on March 5, an extension of the original voting deadline due to the recent winter storm.
Ricardo Delgado contributed to this story.
This is a developing story. The University Star is gathering information and will provide updates as they are made available.