Candidate requests to be removed from ballot
From Oct. 9—13, U of O undergraduate students were asked to vote in their student union byelections. The University of Ottawa Students’ Union (UOSU) sent out a barrage of emails on the 9th and followed up with reminders as the final deadline drew nearer.
The Fulcrum and la Rotonde held debates for candidates in contested races on the 11th, and one candidate, Quanah Traviss, withdrew from the race the next day stating the debate made him see his opponent, Daniel Thorpe, shared many of his ideas.
The Fulcrum reached out to Traviss on the 12th upon seeing his statement announcing his withdrawal. He shared in an email response: “I do not know if I’m allowed to fully say this in a public context, but rules are for suckers — I fully intend on running for Communications Commissioner in the upcoming General Election.”
When asked if he intended to return to the Board of Directors (BOD) to continue to represent the Indigenous Students Association (ISA) Traviss responded: “There’s another member of the ISA who has shown [interest] taking on the mantle either this semester or at the start of the next mandate and has not decided yet. At the end of the day, this is a seat I refuse to leave vacant.”
On the 13th, former UOSU director Hannah Weidrick reached out to the Fulcrum to share concerns over how Traviss went about withdrawing. “Quanah withdrew from the election, but not before he came to [Thorp’s] campaign event and burst into the room and was like ‘We have to talk.’ So they had a talk in the hallway privately, and I could hear Quanah giving Thorp an ultimatum, it was: he will withdraw from the election as long as the results aren’t shared publicly, and Thorp is only allowed to tell one person. It’s undemocratic and it’s wrong and he’s not supposed to do that.”
In a call on the 13th, Traviss shared that he withdrew after feeling burnt out from student politics, and felt that Weidrick was continuing to harass him. “[S]omeone complained to the CEO, the head of the elections committee, saying that it’s unfair that my results don’t get published. Now, someone’s saying I demanded an ultimatum when Daniel [was] totally cool with the terms. We shook on it. Good Faith, like everything that has happened in this election.”
“I think calling [it] an ultimatum is ridiculous,” responded Traviss “I came in, I made him [Thorp] an offer. […] I said, I don’t want to know anything about the results because the whole reason I’m dropping out or one of them is frankly I’m exhausted. I just want to distance myself right now. I need a break, like I said in my post this has not been a great month for me […] And I’m not really too big on my ego, so if someone else can do the exact same job I can do and I’m looking for a way out, I’m gonna sit down and give it to them. It’s just insulting that they would call it an ultimatum.”
Thorpe admits he agreed to these terms and even knew Traviss was considering withdrawing following the debate. Thorpe says on the 12th: “[Traviss] told me essentially, if I was willing to not have the results of the vote, like the numbers, publicly visible he would be withdrawing. I was not sure what would happen if that was brought to the elections officer […] I really didn’t think that there would be an option to actually not have those votes visible. So I agreed on the premise that if that was possible I would be ok with that.”
After speaking with Thorp, Traviss went to the UOSU office to speak with the Chair of UOSU’s election committee and the Chief electoral officer (CEO) for the byelection, FSS director Brandon Ly.
Weidrick says that by the time she and Thorpe arrived at the UOSU office, “[Ly] seemed to [have] come to the conclusion on his own that he was going to cover up election results.”
The Fulcrum spoke with Ly on Oct. 13th to understand how this decision was reached. Ly shared that the elections committee did not meet to discuss this and took full responsibility for the decision.
“I will hold myself accountable for anything that happened here. Whether that means myself resigning or if I have to be held accountable to the board, or if somebody files articles of impeachment against me, I will hold myself accountable to all of this. It is my fault. Whatever happens going forward, I do not think my committee should be implicated in any of this.”
“This election has been arguably one of the more stressful ones for this institution,” said Ly. “There’s a lot that’s happened. I appreciate the media being [as] hard as they are. I appreciate the students who decide to come in here and vote because it’s important that we have the democratic process, and as your current opinions editor has put it: we are not the greatest in terms of voter count right now and I’m hoping that when I see the final results tonight, that will change hopefully.”
Ly continued: “The position of the CEO is a very difficult one. It’s a very stressful one. And I appreciate everybody’s patience with me, including the students [and] the wonderful staff we have here. And the media and the candidates, it’s a lot when you’re working a lot of time and you’re not able to do everything you want to do.”
The CEO position is intended to be a paid role for a non-member of the Union. To fill the role, Ly abstained from voting and did not recieve compensation. Ly also shared that a letter of offer had gone out for the position, meaning the role should be filled for the Union’s general election held in March.
As of the time of interviewing (approximately 5:00 p.m. Oct. 13), Ly said the committee was “still in deliberation” on publishing the results.
In the early morning hours of Oct. 14, the unofficial results were published to Instagram. The results included the number of votes Traviss received before his withdrawal from the race: 744 to Thorp’s 1,044. Notably, more students abstained from voting in this race than voted for the winning candidate: 1,211.
These results will be ratified at UOSU’s Autumn General Assembly (AGA) on November 12th.
