Following accusations of attempted fraud in the recent ASSU election, Undergraduate Senate (UGS) co-chair Ivy Chen ’26 M.A. ’27 submitted a letter of resignation to the UGS eight minutes before the UGS weekly meeting Wednesday. Chen did not attend the meeting.
Prior to Chen’s resignation, the UGS was set to vote on a bill to expel Chen, who was running for Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) president, from the UGS for alleged election fraud. The bill accuses Chen of asking then-elections commissioner Christian Figueroa ’27 to “manipulate votes in her favor.” Figueroa resigned as head elections commissioner the next day.
During the ASSU election last week, the Elections Commission did not include Chen’s bid for ASSU president on the ballot when she could not find a vice president following her running mate and UGS co-chair, Gordon Allen ’26, withdrawing from the race.
Figueroa presented the bill to expel Chen alongside ASSU President Diego Kagurabadza ’25 during the Wednesday meeting.
“In my four years at the ASSU, this is the most egregious conduct, or at least allegation of conduct, that I have encountered, and these charges are detailed in the legislation,” Kagurabadza said.
Figueroa presented a document with a typed transcription of messages between Chen, Allen and himself at the meeting. The document alleges that Chen asked about “what individuals have access to the Qualtrics voting platform,” mentioned “a ‘nuclear option’ in which Figueroa could change people’s votes in her favor” and asked Figueroa “to pull through for” her “as a friend.”
“There is nothing for me to lose if I don’t win this,” Chen allegedly wrote to Allen. “I sound corrupt right now, but I have lost too much.”
The Daily obtained a copy of Figueroa’s document but was unable to verify its validity. The alleged messages on the document were typed, formatted and partially redacted by Figueroa.
Parliamentarian Noah Maltzman ’25 M.S. ’26 asked Figueroa why he failed to present the document at a UGS working session held Tuesday night. At the working session, Chen, Allen and Figueroa all presented their perspectives on the matter.
“There’s shady business all around. And the fact of the matter is, in my mind today, we did not get to see the full picture, and I don’t think we ever will,” Maltzman told The Daily on Wednesday. “The fact that Ivy was not here to defend herself really bothered me. I think that this almost felt like an unfair trial, quote-unquote.”
In her letter of resignation, Chen shared that “it was never [her] intention to interfere with or undermine the democratic process” and that she was “choosing to step down so that the Undergraduate Senate can continue its work without distraction.”
“To my knowledge, no concrete evidence supports the claims being made,” Chen wrote. “While I do not believe I acted with malicious intent — and never intended to compromise or manipulate any aspect of the election process — I understand how my words and behavior may have been misinterpreted or caused concern.”
Kagurabadza questioned if the UGS could “reject a resignation letter.” He said that Chen failed to “properly” acknowledge the attempted election fraud allegations in her letter.
According to Maltzman, while the UGS has no bylaws on rejecting a letter of resignation, the UGS cannot take action if a senator chooses to leave on their own accord.
“I’m quite disappointed that we offered her this option to consider resignation and provide a way to work through this expulsion bill without necessarily having to go through expulsion. I can only speak for myself, but because of this resignation, I am now more comfortable moving forward with the censureship bill,” UGS Appropriations Chair David Sengthay ’26 said.
Following Chen’s resignation letter, Sengthay encouraged the authors of the bill to amend it to a vote of formal censureship rather than expulsion.
UGS senators Celeste Vargas ’27 and Ethan Alfonso ’27 also voiced approval for moving forward on a bill to censure Chen.
“This is unsatisfactory to me, personally,” Vargas said.
The UGS also discussed the slate that won for senior class president, LIFT, which included two cabinet members not officially listed on the ticket. The Elections Commission issued a warning and a request for comment from LIFT, according to acting elections commissioner Gabriela Holzer ’25.
LIFT clarified that “to accommodate greater workload” the slate brought on two “leaders who’ve consistently shown their ability to plan and execute” in a statement to The Daily.
“While only four of us could be listed on the official ballot this past week, the reality is that our team of six will always continue to work as one,” the statement said. “It has always been LIFT’s intention to expand the Senior Class government to allow all six of us to serve as official Senior Class Presidents this upcoming year.”
The UGS will vote to certify the results of the election next week.
A previous version of this article misstated that the UGS, not the Elections Commission, issued a warning and request for comment from LIFT.