AMS denies access to elections complaint records

President says complaint form is meant to be kept anonymous

Image by: Curtis Heinzl
The elections complaint decisions will not be made public record.

After the racist incident which occurred last week at the AMS executive and undergraduate trustee debate, the AMS released a timeline of events involved in the incident. 

In the timeline of events, the AMS said they received official election complaints after the incident. The Journal requested access to decision letters, or redacted complaint filings. In previous elections, The Journal has reported decisions made by the Chief Elections Editor and Secretariat, including campaigning violation decisions. 

The AMS denied the request to access records related to the AMS election and sent The Journal a statement highlighting the rationale for the decision. 

“Due to the nature of the AMS Elections Anonymous Complaint Form, the AMS will not be publicizing copies of the Elections Complaints or the Decision Letters,” AMS President Eric Sikich wrote in a statement to The Journal.

According to Sikich, the implication behind the complaint process is that it be anonymous and entirely confidential, regardless of the complaint. 

“All complaints submitted to the form are private and kept in confidence as privileged information to only the Elections Team and the Judicial Committee. To publicize these records would risk the delegitimization of the confidentiality process and dissuade individuals from coming forward with other complaints.”

Tags

AMS, CEO, complaint, Elections, Elections2023, ERA, KMV, TBD

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