The ASUO Elections Board reprimanded the OSPIRG campaign Tuesday for improper postering, but the group’s budget measure will remain on the general election ballot.
The board is still investigating a grievance filed late Tuesday by vice presidential candidate Jeff Oliver against presidential candidate Bret Jacobson, however, and the board hopes to have a decision late today.
Bill Beutler, a member of the Honesty campaign, filed the OSPIRG grievance, a move that is the latest in a string of accusations of improper postering or posters being torn down by rival campaigns.
In the grievance, Beutler asked the board to remove OSPIRG from the ballot for the March 5-8 general election.
Instead, the board created a new “three strikes” policy for groups found breaking elections rules with their poster use. First offenders such as OSPIRG will receive a verbal warning, and a second offense will require campaigners to remove all posters and give them to the board, but allow them to then place new posters.
Elections Coordinator Shantell Rice said the consequences of a third offense would be decided on a case-by-case basis.
Allegations of improper poster use “come up every year,” Rice said. “Someone has a grievance about it.”
In his grievance, Beutler said identical OSPIRG posters appeared on the bulletin board outside Chapman Hall, a popular spot on campus for campaign posters and advertisements.
Elections rules limit each campaign to one visible poster per bulletin board.
Rice said the violation required action but wasn’t severe enough to remove OSPIRG completely from the ballot.
Beutler called the decision a partial victory because the board agreed that OSPIRG broke elections rules, but he’s not sure whether he will pursue his effort to remove the group from the ballot.
“I’ll be interested to see if OSPIRG will clean up its behavior,” he said.
Voters will decide in the general election whether to approve OSPIRG’s budget for next year at a total of $144,426, or about $2.88 per student per term.
OSPIRG opponents disapprove of how the group sends a portion of its student funds off campus and also uses student fees for off-campus programs and campaigns.
The Honesty campaign, which formed when OSPIRG went to the ballot for funding two years ago, is the group advocating for students to vote against funding the group.
But Melissa Unger, OSPIRG state board chairwoman, called the grievance absurd and unnecessary because OSPIRG members removed the extra posters as soon as they were discovered.
She said other posters covered their originals, so they added more. But when the other posters were torn down, the bulletin board had dual OSPIRG fliers visible.
Unger worked as campaign manager for C.J. Gabbe, who lost last year’s election to ASUO President Jay Breslow. She said both Gabbe and Breslow accidentally broke postering rules last year, but the two candidates talked to each other to rectify the problem instead of filing grievances.
“I take the rules very seriously,” she said. “If we made a mistake, we remedied the situation immediately.”
But Beutler, who is also the editor of the Oregon Commentator, said his grievance is part of a larger picture about what OSPIRG does.
“I’ve always contended that OSPIRG is acting in bad faith. Here’s the perfect example,” he said.
Unger said she also thinks the grievance represents a bigger issue: OSPIRG opponents’ using election rules to keep the group’s budget from coming to a vote.
But Unger could not be reached for comment about the decision itself.
Last week, Executive candidates Bret Jacobson and Matt Cook accused their opponents Eric Bailey and Oliver of tearing down Jacobson campaign posters on campus. Bailey, in turn, said his posters suspiciously disappeared.
Now, Oliver has accused Jacobson and Cook of distributing campaign fliers in the residence halls, which would violate election and University Housing rules, and has asked the board to remove the candidates from the ballot.
Rice said the board needs to investigate Oliver’s grievance further before reaching a decision.
The board will have to make a quick decision, as the two tickets are currently squaring off in the primary election, which ends at 5 p.m. Thursday.