DiBerardino '11 withdraws from VP race, Weinberg '11 wins

DiBerardino e-mailed a statement of withdrawal to USG elections manager Sophie Jin ’11 on Wednesday evening, USG president Connor Diemand-Yauman ’10 confirmed in an interview with The Daily Princetonian.

DiBerardino said he made the decision for “personal reasons” and wrote a letter, separate from the one he sent to Jin, explaining his decision.

“After the election, I had about a month to be at home, away from Princeton and the USG, and at the time I didn’t know there was going to be a revote, so I was already thinking about moving on, and I started to get excited about all the other things I would have time to do,” DiBerardino said, adding that he plans to spend more time focusing on music, his intended concentration.

The election for the vice-presidential position, in which Weinberg defeated DiBerardino by an undisclosed margin, was originally held in December. The validity of the results was subsequently called into question, however, due to then-USG president Josh Weinstein ’09’s endorsement of Weinberg. Former USG elections manager Braeden Kepner-Kraus ’10 called a revote, which was later cancelled by a unanimous USG Senate vote.

After an extended investigation into the election found that several members of the USG could have had access to the election results prior to the cancellation of the initial revote, Jin scheduled another revote for later this month.

That revote will not occur now that there is only one candidate.

"Moving forward, the USG needs to reevaluate its elections procedures and constitution as a whole to ensure that students are not exposed to this level of controversy again," Diemand-Yauman said of the drawn-out process. "The loopholes revealed throughout this elections process, including the president's role in elections procedures and security issues involving the voting and tabulation program, need to be addressed immediately."

Weinberg said he learned of DiBerardino’s withdrawal Tuesday evening from Diemand-Yauman.

“I’m relieved that I don’t have to go through the elections process again, and it’s also exciting to start working with Connor on USG stuff,” he said, adding that he did not think there was sufficient evidence of unfairness in the original election to justify the February revote.

DiBerardino said that, though he agreed with Jin’s decision to hold a revote, he thought the controversy surrounding the election had been detrimental to the image of the USG.

“This whole election has taken the focus away from the USG’s ability to serve students’ interest,” DiBerardino said. “The student body is tired of this whole thing, and I was ready to let it rest.”