Early last evening, 11,746 Stanford e-mail addresses received an anonymous e-mail entitled “The Ugly Side of the ASSU Election.” Sent from a Yahoo! account with the name “Stanford TRULY educated voter,” the e-mail criticized another e-mail sent to the Diaspora list in support of the Husbands-Schwartz slate.

An excerpt from the e-mail reads, “What we have in this election are two slates that are both qualified and committed to similar objectives, but have different ideas about how to achieve those objectives. One slate, for example, decided that negative campaigning was a good way to achieve its own ends . . . don’t be taken in by false campaign ads and smear tactics.”

Editors in chief of The Chaparral, Ian Spiro and Steven Yelderman, both seniors, and current vice presidential candidate Matthew Henick, a junior, uncovered the identity of the sender of the e-mail.

“The reason why we started investigating the origins of the e-mail was because we were offended that the Chappie slate was not mentioned at all,” Henick said.

Although some thought that the e-mail was affiliated with the candidates running for the presidential election, the actual sender was former ASSU Vice President Nick Rodriguez, a senior.

Henick, Spiro and Yelderman traced the IP address to a computer on the second floor of Meyer and found the text file with a list of over 11,000 email addresses. Though it appeared the person who had used the computer had attempted to hide his actions, the three were able to find an electronic trail leading to Nick Rodriguez’s dorm room computer.

They immediately informed the ASSU Elections Commission and Director of Student Activities Nanci Howe of their findings.

Several hours later, around 11 p.m., Henick, Spiro and Yelderman — along with 6 fellow Chaparral staffers — confronted Rodriguez in his room.

“We kept hinting at the fact that we knew he was involved, hoping that he would either confess or otherwise convince us he had no knowledge of the wrongdoing,” Yelderman said. “When we left his room, there was no doubt in our mind that he was in fact guilty.”

Although Rodriguez did not confess in person immediately, he called The Daily and then Howe to confess his sole responsibility for the e-mail.

Rodriguez emphasized that the e-mail was not affiliated with any of the candidates and that it was written of his own volition.

“First I should make it clear I’m not affiliated with any slate,” Rodriguez said. “I know the ASSU has a mailing list of every Stanford student and I saw an e-mail this morning favoring the Husbands-Schwartz slate in the same manner that the ASSU used to send e-mails.”

The e-mail Rodriguez received was actually sent out to the Diaspora list and was in response to earlier e-mails sent out by the Junior and Senior Class presidents.

“I jumped to a conclusion and I thought that the ASSU list had been used and very, very stupidly I took it upon myself to respond not on anyone’s behalf, but because I thought it was somehow unfair,” Rodriguez said.

He said he felt compelled to confess after he was confronted by the Chaparral staff.

“When the Chappie came and told me that they knew and told me what was happening as a result of it, I knew I had to end it,” he said. “Bad things are happening on campus because of what I did. Looking back it was a very stupid idea, and I just wanted to say sorry to everyone I caused trouble to.”

Rodriguez said that when he confessed to Howe, she said that disciplinary action may be taken, as sending the e-mail could have been a Fundamental Standard violation.

“We’ve known each other for a while and she was disappointed in me and understandably so,”

he said.

Junior Ellie Martin, ASSU Elections Commissioner, said that this e-mail may have serious effects on the election because the it reached both undergraduate and graduate students.

“Grad students are going to get this e-mail and not hear anything from the other side, and it has tainted the ASSU,” Martin said.

She said that Rodriguez would send out an apology to as many students in the student body as he could, in an effort to minimize the damage.