During last Friday’s Homecoming football game, Associated Student Body (ASB) Vice President Sabrina Ayala was crowned Queen and at Saturday’s Homecoming dance, Link Crew President Christopher Tam was crowned King. Soon after Ayala was crowned, rumors surfaced about her eligibility and that results were fixed.

With Ayala being in a position of leadership, it raised concerns about whether she was eligible to run although there have been many students with leadership titles that have run. 

Homecoming King and Link Crew President Christopher Tam, Homecoming Prince and ASB President Alejandro Martinez Cavazos and Homecoming Princess Xently Palacios and executive producer of BNN (Bulldog News Network) all ran for court. Last year, Insight Editor-In-Chief Katie Castillo ran for Prom court, demonstrating that a win is not guaranteed just because of a candidate’s leadership position. 

There are no rules stated in the ASB Constitution that prohibits Ayala from being in court. In order for her to run, Ayala had to re-delegate her duty of overseeing elections to another member of ASB. The Commissioner of Events, Sophia Garcia, was given the responsibility.

“Yes, vice president should be in charge of elections, that’s their responsibility if they are available. Since she, in this case, was not available, I had somebody else be in charge of all that stuff…” said ASB advisor Christine Vo. 

Another rumor was that rules for running were changed for Ayala. The guidelines for eligibility to run had not changed from last year. Only one item was changed on ASB’s constitution this year which was the process of ASB’s grading.

Insight asked Vo about the presence of a journalist during the election process. According to the Constitution, the voting process can occur in the presence of a journalist to the journalism advisor’s discretion, an administrator, certificated employee, two cabinet members, or class officers, all of whom are without conflict of interest. Vo explained that it’s harder to involve more people in the voting process due to discretion issues. 

When asked to see the results of this year’s homecoming votes, Vo declined. 

“No, you guys can definitely not see that… I think that goes against voting in general… and just at this point you guys have to trust me,” said Vo.

Despite the controversy and rumors surrounding Ayala’s coronation, the Constitution clearly states she was eligible to run and she campaigned as candidates have in the past. 

“I worked for it, I asked people…I gave out things, sent my graphics to every single person I could. I put in the work for it,” said Ayala.