Three A.S. Candidates Removed from Ballot

Connor Gorry / The Triton

Tritons United (TU) presidential candidate Joey Giltner, Vice President of Campus Affairs candidate Elvin Topalov, and FRESH START (FS) Vice President of External Affairs candidate Crystal Sandoval were removed from the Associated Students of UC San Diego (ASUCSD) elections candidate list over spring break.

According to ASUCSD elections code, the only reason a candidate would be delisted is their failure to meet the minimum GPA requirement. There are two GPA checks to ensure candidates remain eligible. The first check is done when candidates file to run, and the second is done by the end of Thursday Week 1 of spring quarter, which was also the deadline for the TU and FS candidates to be relisted.

Sandoval told The Triton she was delisted because of a clerical error that resulted in her GPA falling below the 2.5 minimum, but candidates from TU did not tell The Triton why they were delisted. AS Elections Manager Kyler Vaughn confirmed that all three candidates were removed from the ballot, leaving one candidate running for each ASUCSD executive position: FS candidates Eleanor Grudin for President and Melina Reynoso for Vice President of Campus Affairs, and TU candidate Tiger Huang for Vice President of External Affairs.

Both slates have continued to advertise using the delisted candidates in campaigning materials, a potential elections code violation for false advertising.

In 2016, TU had to remove Giltner from campaign materials after a candidate filed a grievance against TU for “misleading voters,” by advertising Giltner as a presidential candidate, even though Giltner was not a registered candidate. Giltner told The UCSD Guardian that he decided not to run after TU had already created campaign materials.

In 2014, Giltner introduced a bill to lower the 2.5 GPA minimum to 2.0, but it did not pass ASUCSD Senate. Giltner tried to pass a similar bill lowering the minimum to 2.25 last quarter, but it also did not pass ASUCSD Senate.

Representatives from both FS and TU did not return requests for comment.

Ethan Edward Coston is the Incoming Managing Editor of The Triton. Assistant Managing Editor Anabel King, Incoming Editor-in-Chief Ella Chen, and News Editor Orianna Borrelli assisted with the research and writing for this article.