Everything You Need to Know About the A.S. Presidential Election Controversy.
This week’s contentious Associated Students (A.S.) Election has seen the two presidential candidates, Olivia Taha and Kamiko Greenwood, trade blows with one another in various public forums. Both candidates have raised concerns about their opponents in the Candidate Forum hosted by The Corsair, and in meetings of the A.S. Board of Directors and A.S. Election Committee hearings.
April 4, 2022 - 1 p.m.
During the April 4th Candidate Forum hosted via Zoom webinar and live-streamed on Youtube (above), Taha accused Greenwood of supporting a collaboration between A.S. and J.P. Morgan Chase bank, saying this action is “actively funding the destruction of our planet,” referencing the company’s history of investing in fossil fuel companies. Read more here.
April 4, 2022 - 3 p.m.
In a meeting of the A.S. Board of Directors, Greenwood asserted that an unnamed student at SMC had emailed her about an alleged online profile about Taha on the anonymous website Canary Mission. The profile displays screenshots of antisemitic Facebook posts which appear to be made by an account operated by Taha, though, due to a pending legal matter, Taha could not confirm or deny if she was associated with the posts, pictured below. Taha told the Corsair that "the images being used have been cherry-picked, photoshopped, and altered to make posts appear as if they were posted by me." Taha also said during the meeting that many of the posts were photoshopped and that Canary Mission is a site dedicated to doxxing students in favor of Palestine. Read more here.
April 5, 2022
(Above) An interview between Olivia Taha and The Corsair, wherein Taha claims she cannot confirm nor deny ownership of Facebook accounts containing antisemitic comments.
I.C.C. Chair Catalina Fuentes leads the A.S. Election Committee on possible campaign violations on April 7, 2022, hosted on Zoom.
April 7, 2022 - 12 p.m.
A scheduled A.S. Election Committee meeting was held to discuss possible campaign violations and student-submitted complaints. Multiple complaints against Greenwood for her conduct in the April 4 meeting of the A.S. Board of Directors were dismissed, and Greenwood was found to not be in violation of the A.S. Election Code of Conduct.
At this time, there are no active investigations into the conduct of either presidential candidate. According to Dean Isaac Rodriguez Lupercio, “As stated in the A.S. Elections Code, a candidate may only be disqualified through the student discipline process. This would occur after the conclusion of an election so that the election is not disrupted.” He went on to describe the precedent for disciplinary action in cases of hate speech, “The allegations concern speech in non-College forums, and we have no legal authority to take action against Santa Monica College students or others engaged in constitutionally protected speech.”
Updated April 8, 2022 for source attribution
