USG to hold new VP election at 4 p.m.

The results of the USG vice presidential race will be decided in a re-vote beginning at 4 p.m. today and lasting 24 hours in light of misleading statements contained in USG president Josh Weinstein ’09’s Friday e-mail endorsing vice presidential candidate Michael Weinberg ’11. This action was decided by USG senior elections manager Braeden Kepner-Kraus ’10, who met with Weinberg and the other vice presidential candidate, Nick DiBerardino ’11, on Monday night.

“Mike preferred not to, Nick preferred to do it. Both deferred to me for the final decision, and both were ok with it,” Kepner-Kraus said.

Kepner-Kraus said that he decided in favor of a re-vote because he did not want the legitimacy of the results to be tainted.

“I find it impossible to decide whether and in which way this would have an impact on the election,” he said.

Kepner-Kraus noted that only the vice presidential race will be included in the re-vote. All other results will be released Wednesday, and the re-vote results will be released Thursday.

Weinstein’s Friday statement about unopposed USG presidential candidate Connor Diemand-Yauman ’10’s intentions was the main basis for the decision to have a revote, but the “ensuing controversy” factored in as well, Kepner-Kraus said.

“The statement was the impetus, [but there was also a] big backlash against Mike and his campaign, when they were completely innocent,” he explained.

“[It’s] impossible to say what the resulting advantage was, but many people did go to the polls with incorrect and misleading information that may have influenced the vote,” he added.

Both candidates said that they supported Kepner-Kraus’ decision.

“Braeden had good reason to decide this,” DiBerardino said. “I think it’s unfortunate that the student body is being put through this, but in light of Josh’s actions, I respect this decision.”

“From what Braeden said,” he added, “it was the best way to ensure that there wasn’t an unfair element in this election because of Josh’s e-mail.”

Weinberg, however, said that he feared that the turnout would be low in a re-vote.

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“I just want there to be a fair election in all senses of the word,” he said, explaining that if a re-vote were held, “we might not get a representative sample [of voters].”

He said that he was worried that students might not vote again, that they might be turned off by the controversy or, with break so close, that they may be distracted.

Diemand-Yauman said that he supported the decision to hold a re-vote.

“I believe that this is the best outcome for all parties involved, and I hope that it will give both Mike and Nick a fair shot at the position,” he said.

Election controversy

Last Friday morning, Weinstein sent an e-mail alleging that Diemand-Yauman was endorsing Weinberg privately and had asked him to run on a ticket with him until he realized he was running unopposed.

Though Weinstein sent a clarification e-mail Sunday morning, the USG Senate decided at a closed session Sunday night that further clarification and retraction was needed. An official complaint was also filed to contest the election on the grounds of the misleading implications of Weinstein’s statement, Kepner-Kraus said.

Monday afternoon, Kepner-Kraus and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne sent e-mails to the student body, emphasizing that Diemand-Yauman was not endorsing either candidate publicly or privately.

The two e-mails contained slightly different text. The e-mail sent by Dunne said only that “In fact, Diemand-Yauman decided to run alone long before this time, and before the other Vice-Presidential Candidate, Nicholas DiBerardino, had declared his candidacy.”

The other, sent from usgvote@princeton.edu, added, “After learning that DiBerardino was running, Diemand-Yauman decided it was best to withdraw himself from the ticket and to allow the student body to decide by publicly remaining impartial.”

Kepner-Kraus clarified in an interview that Diemand-Yauman had decided to remove himself from the ticket after learning that DiBerardino had privately decided to run, but that DiBerardino publicly declared his candidacy after Diemand-Yauman decided he would run alone. Diemand-Yauman confirmed that this was the case.

— Staff writer Gabriel Debenedetti contributed reporting.