Judicial committee hears election violations

The ASUW's Judicial Committee convened at the HUB last night to carry out the final part of this year's election process -- hearing violations against candidates.

Chaired by mathematics senior Michelle Goodstein, the committee heard 28 violations.

The most serious complaint brought before the committee was the destruction of Team Fusion campaign signs by members of the Rock the Vote campaign team. In the sole instance of sign destruction observed by a witness, a Rock the Vote campaign worker in the company of incoming programming director Hillary Madsen used a hammer to knock down a sign put up by Team Fusion.

"Our whole campaign was very distraught to hear the news," said Sean Kellogg, student-senate chair and a member of Rock the Vote, who spoke on Madsen's behalf. "Immediately after the campaign member knocked down the sign, Hillary stopped the activity from going forward. A sign was knocked down -- there's no way to get around that -- but it was only one sign."

Cammie Croft, Team Fusion's vice presidential candidate, said more than one of her campaign's signs had been intentionally destroyed, but no such activity could be proved.

Most of the violations cited during the election involved misplaced campaign signs and fliers by various candidates. All signs on the HUB lawn must be placed within three feet of the adjacent walkways, and candidates may only post a certain number of campaign fliers at on-campus kiosks, according to ASUW regulations.

"We went with a measuring tape to find all the signs that were farther than 3 (feet) from the walkway," said J.J. McCammon, chair of the ASUW Elections Administration Committee. "It's surprising how small a distance that is, and I'll admit there were a lot of misunderstandings with regards to where signs could be placed."

The Judicial Committee quickly resolved the sign-related violations, and the majority of the parties accused of such violations said the sign placement was an honest mistake.

"It's always a challenge when you have tons of friends and supporters helping with your campaign," said incoming ASUW President Brittany Goodnight. "You can't orchestrate and control everything that will happen."

Another violation brought up during the proceedings was the alleged use of a bullhorn by members of the Dream Team campaign, to which Goodnight and incoming operations director Christine Lee belong.

Goodnight said she had never used a bullhorn at any time during her campaign, and she was not aware of any Dream Team campaign workers who had done so.

"When I heard about the bullhorn, it really confused me," she said. "The last time I used one was at my last anti-war rally a few months ago."

Marcus Lee, who brought the complaint against Goodnight, cited her for using a bullhorn, but during the hearing he said it was actually a volunteer from her campaign whom he was unable to identify.

One citation that turned heads at the hearing was Kellogg's complaint against the election committee for only mentioning one of the two referendums up for election in the ASUW's online voting guide.

Kellogg used the hearing as an opportunity to protest the ASUW's legislative guidelines. He said he feels the existing regulations for the passage of referendums and other motions are so convoluted they prevent students outside the ASUW leadership from making changes to the system.

"It's a matter of ensuring that the democratic process is open to average students," he said. "When you have all referendums going through so many ASUW committees, it's hard for someone outside the organization to make an internal change."