The University administration will bar the ASUO Elections Board from restricting campaigning after the administration moved to clarify the board’s rules Tuesday.
Candidates said the decision left the Elections Board toothless and opened the door for a chaotic last day of campaigning in the student government’s primary election Thursday.
“Basically, we’re talking about a situation where the slates can do whatever they want,” independent presidential candidate Ryan McCarrel said.
Representatives for the five presidential campaigns met Wednesday to discuss how they would deal with the ruling and whether they would continue to abide by elections rules. Candidates had speculated the ruling would effectively legalize tactics such as bribery. Under the clarified rules, the board has the authority to take action against candidates only when they are found to have broken rules by the ASUO Constitution Court.
After the meeting, four campaigns said they would continue to abide by the elections board’s rules, while the Oregon Action Team slate released a statement saying they would do so only if the board’s rulings respected their civil rights. The slate’s campaign manager, Marcus Krieg, said the Elections Board was biased against the slate.
“My concern is that the elections board has a demonstrated bias and I don’t want to put my campaign at risk,” Krieg said.
The administration’s decision was a response to a plea by Krieg on Tuesday for assistance after the board barred the slate from campaigning on Wednesday for failing to disclose its spending on time.
Elections rules state that “(f)ailure to submit the form will result in suspended campaigning until the form is received and the candidate receives notice from the Elections Board,” but the board’s punishment was imposed after the slate had already turned in the forms.
After the punishment was imposed, Krieg wrote a letter to Student Affairs Vice President Robin Holmes and General Counsel Randy Gellar. “We seek the assistance and clarification from the General Counsel’s Office before this seemingly small conflict escalates into a disaster,” he wrote in the letter.
Elections Coordinator Aaron Tuttle said Holmes responded by issuing the clarification, which candidates said neutered the elections board.
“I don’t think this was a smart decision on the part of the administration,” said Alison Fox, campaign manager for independents Emma Kallaway and Getachew Kassa.
Fox, McCarrel, and campaign managers for the Students First and True Blue Student Coalition slates said they would release a joint statement condemning the decision and reaffirming their commitment to following the rules. However, Krieg said his campaign would not commit unequivocally to following the rules and said he had been told several rules were specifically made to target his campaign at a mandatory candidates meeting.
“They were afraid that (Oregon Action Team vice presidential candidate) Ted Sebastian was going to try to buy the election because his family is supposedly rich,” Krieg said.
Tuttle denied the allegations. “The rules were not aimed at any group, any person,” he said.
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