In light of recent grievances, appeals, and the ASUO Constitution Court upholding the Elections Board’s decision to disqualify Ben Bowman as a presidential candidate, ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz sent an email to Vice President for Student Affairs Robin Holmes on Monday to request that the elections be delayed by one week.

“Candidates should have reasonable time to prepare, and the student body is better served by having an appropriate amount of time to learn about the candidates, or even know who the candidates are,” Dotters-Katz said to Holmes in his email.

As of Monday, the Mighty Oregon slate – which Bowman was representing – currently doesn’t have a replacement to fill the now empty presidential candidate seat. Since students won’t have the same amount of time to learn about the new candidate from Mighty Oregon once one is chosen, Dotters-Katz believes that students deserve to have an extra week to learn about him or her before voting.

Holmes replied back to Dotters-Katz’s email and said that as of now, there isn’t a reason for the administration to intervene in the elections.

“I have been following the process and decisions of the Elections Board and Con Court,” Holmes wrote in her response to Dotters-Katz. “At this time, the administration has no plans to intervene and the election will be held next week as scheduled.”

Elections Board Coordinator MacGregor Ehlen agrees with Dotters-Katz’s idea, especially since not all of the candidates have been slated for the elections ballot.

“I think that it’s the best course of action, especially since Mighty Oregon hasn’t given us a name to replace Bowman yet,” Ehlen said.

As a presidential candidate, Thomas Tullis wouldn’t be against a one week delay in the elections himself.

“I think that so far this year things have played out unusually,” Tullis said. “So a decision to delay the elections wouldn’t be inappropriate or unfounded.”