Updated: April 1, 2021 at 1:27 p.m.

The now disqualified freshmen ticket of Christian Martinez and Aidan Gibson have broken their silence today with a statement via Instagram addressing their removal from the SGA presidential and vice presidential race.

“While we were deeply bothered when the news was delivered, we were unfortunately not surprised,” the ticket said.

The ticket, which was disqualified for Snapchat messages Martinez sent to students, said it had faced challenges the other tickets didn’t from the beginning of the election.

The Snapchat message sent from Martinez said, “So me and my friend Aidan are running for president and vice president and one of our big things is adding another dining option on campus so could you go vote for us?”

The pair said the disqualification “disenfranchises” the students who voted for their ticket.

“It creates an unhealthy and predatory precedent for regulation of speech and communication on campus,” the pair said in their statement.

However, the pair did confirm in their statement that Christian Martinez did send private Snapchat messages “reminding individuals to vote.”

The Court of Review denied the ticket’s appeal to its disqualification, according to a statement. This is due to Martinez not registering his private SnapChat account he used to campaign with the court, which is in violation of the elections code. Registering social media is required of all tickets on all social media outlets.

The ticket went on to single out the SGA Commissioner of Elections. The Martinez/Gibson ticket said in their statement that they “feel the Commissioner of Elections did not make attempts to conceal personal bias in this election cycle.”

“This decision is a display of unhealthy and unjust power,” the ticket said.

This isn’t the first time the Martinez/Gibson ticket was in hot water this election cycle. Their elections code violation hearing detailed Martinez/Gibson campaign stickers on Budding Hall washers and dryers.

SGA Elections Code Article VI, Section IV, Clause I, prohibits campaigning action of destruction of non-private property. The campaign was found to be in violation of the Accountability Clause in Elections Code Article VII, Section III, Clause II.

The court therefore deemed Martinez’s violation as Class A, and the decision to disqualify the ticket was upheld.

Editor’s Note: This story has been changed and updated as of April 1, 2021. A previous version of this story cited an anonymous source on the Elections Commission that has since been removed for the sake of transparency and clarity.