This article was updated at 6:59 p.m. on 4/16 to include a statement from Ginsberg.

In yet another twist to a chaotic election season, the Student Association Judicial Board, in a decision released on Wednesday, ordered a special election for the position of executive vice president, citing serious errors committed by the Elections and Judiciary Committee.

In an over-4,000-word opinion, a unanimous Judicial Board held that the mistakes constituted “widespread faulty administration of the election.” Problems occurred with the committee incorrectly considering “no confidence” and write-in ballots.

“And voters were allowed to choose other options besides Rabin or Ginsberg: they could select “No Confidence” or instead write in a preferred candidate,” the opinion reads. “This directly contributed to why not one candidate initially received more than 50%. The E+J Committee’s refusal to proceed with ranked choice allocation is therefore inexcusable.”

According to the Management Policies, one of the SA’s governing documents, a candidate must achieve a majority — not just a plurality — of all votes cast. Once “no confidence” and write-in votes were considered, incumbent Batia Rabin’s 47 percent and Nick Ginsberg’s 45.5 percent meant neither secured at least 50 percent of the vote.

“The E+J committee erroneously declined to proceed with ranked choice voting, even though no candidate received a majority of votes after the first round,” the board wrote. “Moreover, there were glaring errors in how write-ins, No Confidence, and partial blank ballots were tabulated in ways that could have altered the ultimate outcome of the race.”

The committee’s inclusion of “no confidence” as an option on the ballot, the Judicial Board held, lacked textual grounding in the Management Policies, Elections Code or the SA Constitution. This is despite “the enormous precedent that has been set previously,” the board wrote, referring to the fact that “no confidence” has been an option on the ballot for many years.”

“The inclusion of a ‘No Confidence’ option on the ballot without any expressed authority to do so was improper and likely caused voter disenfranchisement when marking up ballots,” the board wrote. “E+J also grievously erred in not considering write-ins as candidates for ranked choice purposes.”

At a meeting on April 1 where they planned to certify the election results, Congress representatives voted to table certification of the executive vice president race after Ginsberg, a junior double-majoring in political science and sociology, made public his grievance and urged the body to await a decision from the Judicial Board.

At the hearing before the board on April 5, Ginsberg said that the SA’s Management Policies require a candidate to have a majority of all votes cast. As Rabin earned only 47 percent when no-confidence and write-in votes were factored in, he argued that the vote-counting was marked by improper procedure.

The Judicial Board’s decision touched on the hotly contested race for University Council representative, which was ultimately decided by just 36 votes after disputes over ballot eligibility and a previous grievance hearing. The board wrote that “the E+J’s tabulation errors might have implications for the BU Council Representative election.”

In the board’s verdict, the Elections Committee was explicitly ordered to follow established ranked-choice voting procedure and to include “no confidence” as a write-in option. For future elections, the board ordered “no confidence” removed from ballots absent action from the SA Congress, and it instructed the Elections Committee to provide detailed voter reports to the two candidates in the race for council representative.

“I am happy with the Judicial Board’s decision because we have to ensure that every vote is tabulated correctly and given the same weight as another. Each student that votes pays the student activity fee, and all voices must be heard,” Ginsberg wrote to Pipe Dream. “To ensure proper tabulation and administration of the election is to ensure that every member of the Student Association has a properly elected officer to represent them in the coming academic year. Let me know if you have any other questions for me.”

Requests for comment were left with the Elections and Judiciary Committee and Rabin. It is unclear when the special election will be held.

This is a breaking story, and it will be updated.

Editor’s Note: Joseph Brugellis, the vice chief justice of the Judicial Board who authored this decision, is an assistant news editor. He had no part in the writing or editing of this article.