The recently resigned Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) elections commissioner allegedly bad-mouthed multiple candidates running for ASSU Executive Office to other candidates while serving as elections commissioner, according to five members of the ASSU and text messages reviewed by The Daily.
Commissioner Christian Figueroa ’27 resigned after former Undergraduate Senate (UGS) co-chair Ivy Chen ’26 M.A. ’27 allegedly attempted to pressure him into rigging the spring ASSU election in her favor.
According to six members of the ASSU and text messages reviewed by The Daily, Chen attempted to leverage Figueroa’s bad-mouthing of other candidates running against her to pressure him into manipulating the election. Chen’s slate was left off the ballot after her running mate and UGS co-chair Gordon Allen ’26 withdrew from the race “due to a pattern of dynamic differences.”
“[Figueroa] was found out to have been expressing information that made him feel partial towards one of the groups that’s running,” said a member of the ASSU who requested anonymity due to fears of retaliation. “That’s probably…the only rule that the elections commissioner is supposed to follow is to be impartial, and he broke that.”
According to five UGS senators, a member of the ASSU and messages obtained by The Daily, Chen threatened to release the contents of a group chat between Allen, Figueroa and herself if Figueroa did not manipulate the votes in her favor.
According to the contents of a group chat confirmed by five senators and one member of the ASSU, Figueroa sent negative remarks about candidates in the race for ASSU Executive Office to Chen and Allen, both candidates in the same race. The remarks included personal attacks on multiple candidates, but several specifically targeted ASSU presidential candidate Artem Arzyn ’26 M.S. ’26.
According to four undergraduate senators and one member of the ASSU, Figueroa spoke negatively about candidates’ characters and aspects of their identity, specifically gender identity.
Figueroa used transphobic language when referring to a candidate running for ASSU Executive Council, according to four undergraduate senators and one member of the ASSU.
In a statement made to The Daily today, Figueroa wrote, “There were moments where I regrettably voiced internal negative frustration concerning other candidates. I have taken this opportunity to sincerely reflect, especially as a gay man, and I apologize for the comments I had made. My actions did not provide an unfair advantage to any candidate. The severity of Senator Chen’s demand to manipulate votes is the most alarming conduct this election cycle.”
“Senator Chen’s unstable and concerning behavior, as outlined in the bill to remove her, did include a legitimate threat of extortion as well as a threat to her own health if I had not complied with her demands,” Figueroa wrote in a statement today.
The origins of the term “nuclear option” and the suggestion to manipulate votes are unclear.
Chen said in a UGS working session the day before her resignation that the “nuclear option” originated from Figueroa, who said it was what he would do if Chen and Allen did not win the election, according to meeting minutes obtained by The Daily. At the working session, UGS appropriations chair David Sengthay ’26 M.A. ’26 told the UGS that he overheard Chen refer to a “nuclear option” several times in a call between Allen and Chen that took place in Sengthay’s room.
“Ivy repeatedly brought up the nuclear option. I was quite bewildered. I was wondering, ‘wait, what is going on?’” Sengthay told The Daily.
“[Chen] admitted herself…that she’s talked about this nuclear option before with multiple people, and that’s reprehensible, and that’s wrong,” said a UGS senator who requested anonymity due to fears of retaliation. “However, it also needs to be said that it felt to me as though Gordon and Christian have some guilt and they threw Ivy under the bus to absolve themselves.”
A separate UGS senator, who requested anonymity due to fears of retaliation, told The Daily that at the working session, Chen argued that “Christian had promised Gordon that he could rig the election in his favor. And so that was the origin of that nuclear option term.”
“Everything that trickled past that and Ivy ever bringing up that term came from the fact that initially, Christian had offered [the nuclear option] to his friend Gordon, when he was on the campaign, and then, essentially, when Gordon left campaign, Christian was no longer willing to do it,” the UGS senator said.
“Despite all three being in the wrong, Ivy is taking all the blame because Gordon and Christian aligned their stories within a day after them not being aligned before,” said one of the senators.
Sengthay told The Daily he found Figueroa’s decision to resign “quite wise.”
“I think what [Figueroa] was worried about is that Ivy came up to him with a proposition that was completely unethical and corrupt and could jeopardize the election. So for him to step away from the election and to remove himself from the process before the ballot was even released was very smart,” Sengthay said.
The anonymous member of the ASSU told The Daily, “Christian Figueroa resigned from being the elections commissioner after being asked and encouraged to by the current ASSU President.”
“I just want to still recognize, [Chen] has done great work, and yes, the reason why we held her accountable is because people need to be held accountable for these kinds of things,” said Allen. “We want to preserve not only the public trust in our institution, but also the University’s trust in us as well.”