After an unprecedented 23 complaints submitted to the IUSG Election Commission, we finally know the preliminary results of the IUSG Election.

Voting for the election closed on Friday. On Sunday, the Elevate and Legacy campaigns filed five complaints against the Inspire campaign. Then on Monday, Inspire filed ten complaints against Elevate and eight complaints against Legacy.

But of those complaints, the IUSG Election Commission only accepted four complaints against Inspire, one complaint against Elevate, and two complaints against Legacy.

On Tuesday, the Election Commission announced Elevate was the preliminary winner and that Inspire had been disqualified after being found responsible for two election violations.

One violation was for using a contact list from a previous Inspire campaign and failing to give students the option to opt out of the list and another was for continuing to contact students after they requested to stop receiving their messages.

In their official complaint response, the Election Commission says Inspire used a contact list collected by the previous
Inspire campaign and the current IUSG vice president for a fees/tuition petition in 2020. They say the messages sent to this contact list did not provide a clear option for students to opt out and that Inspire continued to send messages to this list even after students requested to be taken off.

The Elevate and Legacy campaigns are currently being investigated for their complaints. Although the Election Commission has not publicly confirmed which complaints against Elevate and Legacy are being investigated, Elevate confirmed they are being investigated for sending mass messages without a clear option to opt out.

Elevate candidate for Student Body President Ky Freeman insists Elevate did provide students an option to opt out and that they pride themselves on being transparent.

“With the key mission of our campaign being to empower students, we want to make sure that they still are empowered to speak because I think there were some actions throughout this election that kind of stifled that,” said Freeman.

Although Elevate is the preliminary winner, the results of the will not election will not be certified by the IU Supreme Court until the Election Commission investigates the three outstanding complaints against Elevate and Legacy. A two-thirds majority vote is required in order for a campaign to be found responsible for an election violation.