The University Board of Elections released the first draft of the Board’s Rules and Regulations of the 2026-27 academic year Sept. 1, and a commentary period was held for University students to provide feedback on the draft until Tuesday. The finalized rules will be effective Wednesday.
UBE is a Special Status Organization established in 2003 to “further the aims of student self-governance within a community of trust and honor and to supervise all University-wide student elections,” according to its website. Elected positions in the jurisdiction of UBE include roles in the Student Council, University Judiciary Committee, Honor Committee, class and school councils and other elections by request.
Some proposed changes that UBE made to its Rules and Regulations include adding the right for UBE to revoke an Endorsing Organization’s endorsement rights for up to one year, removing the Judicial Review Board’s jurisdiction in overseeing election appeals and removing excess information throughout the Rules and Regulations document.
Ella Gilmore, UBE chair and fourth-year College student, said in a Sept. 7 interview with The Cavalier Daily that UBE began reviewing its rules and regulations annually three years ago, with the introduction of a Rules Revision committee. The committee includes the chair of UBE and two other UBE members.
According to Gilmore, UBE created the Rules Revision committee because its rules had not been updated “in a while,” and UBE believed that an annual review and revision would allow UBE to best upkeep its Rules and Regulations.
The Rules and Regulations are broken down by five articles — Power and Jurisdiction, Campaigning and Electioneering, Election Procedures, Rules Violation, Resolution and Enforcement and Ratification and Amendment. Each article is further broken down by sections.
“We meet over the summer to review, edit and revise our rules and regulations, considering what had occurred in the previous years [and the] fall and spring election,” Gilmore said. “By article, we break the rules down … [and] take into consideration the complaints we got that year.”
In the Spring 2026 Rules Report published in mid-March by UBE, the Board received nine resolved complaints. The topics of the complaints included excessive chalking by the Observatory Hill Dining Hall, unapproved signage near first-year dormitories and some voters not receiving ballots.
Though the Rules Revision committee formally meets during the summer, Gilmore said that UBE keeps track of complaints, investigations and decisions throughout the year. Gilmore added that the committee refers to this running document during its summer meeting.
“The reason we change [the Rules and Regulations] once a year is because we want to keep them consistent between the fall and spring elections,” Gilmore said.
Gilmore said that once the academic year begins, the Rules Revision committee presents its revisions to the entire Board before opening the draft to public comments.
“We have a two-week public commentary period, so we post our proposed changes on our website along with a commentary form in which anyone is welcome to fill out their thoughts on the rules,” Gilmore said.
In Article V, Item C.II, the proposed Rules and Regulations document also states that “two weeks after this public comment period begins, UBE shall meet again to review public comments, debate, then vote on a final rulemaking order.”
UBE announced the release of the Rules and Regulations draft Sept. 1 on their Instagram account and closed the form for comments Tuesday, which left one week for students to voice their potential suggestions and concerns about the draft.
Gilmore said that after the commentary period, the entire Board meets again to review the comments. Then, the Board will publish the rules for the academic year, which are expected to be released Wednesday.
Following the Student Council presidential election appeal that occurred during the 2025-26 academic year, Gilmore said UBE did not expedite its revision process, as UBE already has a process in place for reviewing its rules.
At the time of the appeal, Gilmore had not yet assumed her role as UBE chair, and the investigation of the election was overseen by her predecessor, Abby Nickelson, former UBE chair and Class of 2026 alumna. Gilmore inherited the role of UBE chair April 1.
In the election appeal, Micah Andrews, 2026-27 Student Council presidential candidate and fourth-year College student, raised concerns Feb. 26 to UBE about irregularities related to bribery, coercion and procedural violations of UBE's endorsement protocols across parties. UBE found no violation of its Rules and Regulations both after the initial appeal and a follow-up Hearing Panel March 11 regarding the allegation.
Hearing Panels — attended only by three judges on UBE, the complainant and the respondent — are always employed when the disqualification of a candidate is being considered, according to the Rules and Regulations and UBE website.
Andrews appealed the latter decision to the JRB — a committee housed in the Student Affairs Office that oversees the fairness of student disciplinary proceedings — which ruled that UBE was required to further investigate Andrews’ claims and gather more key information. UBE voted to uphold the Student Council election results in a 2-1 decision April 1 and once more in late April. In doing so, it affirmed that Michael Mitchell, Student Council president and fourth-year Commerce student, took the position about two months after Andrews’ initial appeal.
The Spring 2026 Rules and Regulations report detailed the ongoing investigation of the Student Council election as of mid-March, though the document is not updated to reflect UBE’s final decision to affirm the election results.
“We have taken the past spring election events into account, like we do with all of our elections … It did give us a lot to work with,” Gilmore said.
In a Sept. 6 follow-up email statement to The Cavalier Daily, Gilmore commented on several proposed changes to the rules as noted below.
Article I, Item B
Removed provision: “Refer to the Honor and Judiciary committees, the Undergraduate and Graduate Records and various University departments and other sources for more information.”
According to Gilmore, removing this provision from the first article of the Rules and Regulations document “does not disqualify other organizations’ power and jurisdiction.”
“We strive to make our Rules [and Regulations] as streamlined and clear as possible, which sometimes necessitates removing excess information that students can easily find elsewhere,” Gilmore wrote.
Article III, Section 3, Item H
Added provision: “The UBE reserves the right to revoke an Endorsing Organization’s ability to officially endorse candidates or referendum for up to one year.”
Gilmore clarified that while the endorsing rights of an Endorsing Organization can be revoked, members of the organization are still eligible to vote in elections.
According to the UBE website, becoming an Endorsing Organization is an opportunity for organizations to publicly voice their approval for a candidate. Endorsing Organizations must abide by UBE’s Rules and Regulations and hold fair interviews for all candidates.
Article IV, Section 1, Item A.IV
Added provision: “Complaints must be filed within 24 hours of the end of the voting period. Minor complaints made after the voting window closes will not be considered.”
While this added provision only refers to minor complaints not being accepted after the voting window closes, Gilmore clarified that major complaints are also subject to the same 24 hour deadline.
UBE’s Rules and Regulations provides examples of both minor and major rules violations, with potential minor rules violations being improper signage or chalking, and potential major rules violations being bribery, tampering with campaign materials and providing intentionally false information to UBE.
Article IV, Section 1, Item D and Section 2, Item A.IV
Removed provision: “The appellant may appeal the decision of a Hearing Panel to the University Judiciary Committee’s Judicial Review Board within 24 hours of the Hearing Panel decision.”
Removed provision: “Decisions pertaining to disqualification are also appealable to the JRB, following the same procedure as outlined in Section 1 of this article.”
Gilmore wrote that these provisions — allowing the JRB jurisdiction over elections in the event of appeals — were removed because “the integrity of student self-governance calls for students themselves to manage U.Va.'s student elections.”
“The nature of UBE’s rules decision process and Hearing Panel appeals option ensures that decisions are made efficiently, due to the timely manner of the election cycle, but with proper due process,” Gilmore wrote.
Reflection on the new Rules and Regulations
Gilmore wrote that UBE hopes the amended rules aim to “give students more clarity surrounding the election process and facilitate greater participation in student self-governance.”
The updated Rules and Regulations document will take effect Wednesday.
Melody Yuan is a staff writer on the news desk. She is a second-year student in the College studying Economics and Statistics from Richmond, Va.
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