BOULDER, Colo. – A major election scandal is rocking the University of Colorado after two out of three winning candidates in student government elections were disqualified for bribing fellow students for votes.

“Student leaders believe it’s the first time in more than a century that winning candidates have been disqualified from office,” the Daily Camera reports. “The most serious accusation against the candidates – two of three students on the winning tri-executive ticket – was that they tried to bribe students to vote for them with cookie cakes and pizzas.”

MORE NEWS: Know These Before Moving From Cyprus To The UK

University of Colorado students elect three student government presidents on the same ticket, and the winning party, “Revolution,” beat the next closest ticket by 316 votes during this spring’s election. The winners control a roughly $23 million student activities budget and manage some facilities on campus, according to the Associated Press.

The next closest party in the spring election, “Ignite,” filed complaints against the Revolution winners, alleging they doled out pizza and treats for votes, which triggered an appeals process through the student government appellate court. That court ruled this week that two of the winning candidates – Colton Lyons and Marcus Fotenos – are disqualified from office for breaking the rules.

Madalena DeAndrea, who ran on the same ticket as Lyons and Fotenos, was not disqualified and will take office next month, the Daily Camera reports.

“Today marks an inauspicious yet historical day: for the first time in 110 years of institutional memory, candidates seeking office … have had their votes vacated and their seats disqualified,” Steve Marcantonio, chief justice for the student government appellate court, wrote in a statement about the ruling.

The appellate court ruling upheld an original disqualification handed down by a student elections panel earlier this month. The Revolution party can appeal the decision to Chancellor Phil DiStefano and the university system’s board of regents, though it’s unclear whether it will.

The students under attack hired Colorado political attorney Ryan Call to help with their appeal to the student government appellate court. Call has served as chairman of the Colorado Republican Party and works for a high-powered Denver law firm.

MORE NEWS: How to prepare for face-to-face classes

“We’re reviewing the decision by the appeals court and find some major deficiencies in the reasoning and the standards that were used,” Call told the Daily Camera. “We’re deeply troubled by the fact that complaints filed by the losing party’s ticket can essentially nullify all the votes cast by students in the election.”

“We believe the whole process by which these complaints were filed and the charges were prosecuted undermine not only the clear provisions of the election code itself but basic standards of due process and fairness,” he said.

Ironically, Ignite campaign manager Katey Haas told the news site she thought Call’s involvement in the ordeal – which was initiated by Ignite’s complaints about pizza and cookies – was “a little bit crazy.”

“I don’t understand why it needed to escalate quite like that,” she said.