USUSA president runner-up Kapp McCallister raises concerns over transparency in elections cycle

Kapp McCallister, runner-up in the 2026 USUSA presidential elections with an eight-vote difference separating him and president-elect Max Alder, said he found himself satisfied with the results but dissatisfied with the election process as a whole in the days following the election. 

Voting in USUSA Elections was open from Monday, Feb. 23, to Tuesday, Feb. 24, with the results announced on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 4 p.m. in the TSC Hub. Before this announcement, there was a two-month process candidates went through to legally declare and campaign for office. It was during this time McCallister said he felt there were flaws in the elections process.

The USUSA Elections Committee is a private committee composed of USUSA members. The Utah Statesman submitted a formal GRAMA request for the committee’s names, but the request was not fulfilled by the time of publication. The two publicly confirmed members are Breanna Cahoon and USUSA President Brandon Sorensen as co-chairs of the elections committee.  

After the election results were announced by Sorensen and Cahoon, the next day, McCallister sent an email to various upper administration within USU to call for transparency and accountability in elections, according to a previous news release by the Statesman. 

Upper Administration

These were not McCallister’s only frustration with USUSA Elections. He went on to explain his issues with the upper administration and the elections committee. These issues were with Kevin Webb, director of leadership for the Student Involvement & Leadership Center within the division of USU Student Affairs. 

“Kevin — I believe, personally, he does not care, like at all,” McCallister said. “Why are you on the committee if you don’t care?” 

University spokesperson Amanda DeRito responded on behalf of Webb, to McCallister’s concerns in an email to the Statesman. 

“Staff members in student involvement and leadership care deeply for our students and strive to provide an unbiased and neutral environment for student elections,” DeRito wrote.

Webb acts as the adviser to the elections committee. According to Sorensen, the elections co-chairs are the only two students with access to live voter data and can only view the data with an adviser present. 

USUSA Leadership 

McCallister said he believes Sorensen, during the two-day voting period, had been giving that voting information to candidates Max Alder and Colin Hastings. This led McCallister to file an official election grievance, but the grievance did not fall under the jurisdiction of elections, as Sorensen was not a candidate this election cycle. 

“They disregarded my grievance because they said it was with Brandon. My grievance is with the campaigns. Okay, it just so happens that it came from a source that I’m assuming was the one that’s the chair for the elections committee. Personal opinion that is not fact, but it needs to be investigated,” McCallister said. 

USUSA responded via a statement shared on social media. 

“We acknowledge that President Sorensen made a comment to one student saying that it was ‘anyone’s race,’ however, he did not disclose any exact counts prior to the elections announcement or give any indication of where any candidate sat. President Sorensen apologizes for any concerns this may have caused, and we will conduct a review of the procedures pertaining voting data and make any needed changes,” the post stated. 

Fraternity Frustrations

McCallister’s frustrations extended into a larger frustration with the fraternity Sigma Phi Epsilon, commonly known as SigEp. McCallister shared screenshots with the Statesman, one of which he believes to be an iMessage group chat with SigEp members and other members of USU Fraternity & Sorority Life community. All names involved, other than Sorensen’s, were cropped or blacked out. The other two screenshots were direct messages to McCallister. 

One of two anonymous direct messages wrote, “while door knocking someone on Colin Hastings team told me that he had seen the current standings of the election and said they were neck and neck. Did not tell me how he saw them and did not say who was winning but nonetheless had seen them.” 

In the group chat screenshot, one message claims, “i have credible sources, my friend heard it from brandon.” 

While another direct message stated, “she’s on the usu hearing board and apparently brandon told them about the vote counts after kapps hearing board meeting.”

It is unclear who “she” is, as all names associated with these screenshots were kept anonymous apart from Sorensen’s. The hearing board meeting being referenced is the Cortez V McCallister hearing board, where SigEp member and campaign manager for Logan Vice President-elect Kylie Back, Gabe Cortez, filed a grievance towards McCallister. The hearing board concluded there was no violation. 

“I have completely been uninvolved with any of the Greek chapters, as well as any students regarding the elections,” Sorensen said. 

Sorensen was a fraternity brother in SigEp when he won his presidential election in the spring of 2025 but during his time as president made a quiet departure from the organization. 

Alder’s presidential win made him the fourth USUSA president in a row to come from SigEp. 

“It’s been four years now where there has been unfair advantages on the side of these people, and I feel like I took the brunt of it,” McCallister said. 

Family Involvement

The weekend following the results, McCallister sent a second mass email to all of the Student Involvement & Leadership Center staff and to the USU Student Affairs email. In this email, he details his belief there was a violation of election bylaws by another candidate’s family members. 

He later followed up on the same topic in a text to the Statesman with a statement from a student source, who wishes to remain anonymous for academic-related purposes. The source explained a candidate’s family member entered a concurrent enrollment high school class and instructed them to participate in the election. 

“She explained that because it is a concurrent enrollment class, we have an A number, and therefore are able to vote. Students were able to take out their phones to vote. During this process, she not only told students to vote for Max because he is current vice president and more experienced, but also told everyone to put Kapp McCallister last. Without actually knowing any of the candidates or anything about their campaign, students participated and took time out of the class to vote. I believe she went to every concurrent enrollment class, and also sent emails out to teachers about voting. Her instructions to rank another candidate last felt inappropriate, unfair, and unprofessional,” the statement from the anonymous source via McCallister stated. 

 McCallister, in an interview with the Statesman, shared a similar sentiment. 

“This was manipulation of minors,”  McCallister said. “In the elections bylaws, they’re basically like, if it’s offsite, if it’s off campus, they don’t care. They don’t get a rip, and that is freaking wrong.” 

After various emails, social media posts and public statements, McCallister has found himself at the center of what he calls a “pursuit of truth.” He promptly shared what he hopes to come from said pursuit. 

“Why I sent this email and why I am interested in in exposing these things is because truth needs to be brought to the light,” McCallister said. “I don’t believe that it is right to not speak. It’s unjust, and I stand for justice. I stand for truth.”