Oregon Action Team executive candidates Michelle Haley and Ted Sebastian will remain on the ASUO general election ballot through the end of the week after the University administration and the ASUO Elections Board agreed to let the ASUO Constitution Court decide the matter. Con Court Chief Justice Kevin Parks said late Wednesday night that a ruling in the case would likey be released by early Thursday morning.
The Elections Board ordered Haley and Sebastian’s names removed Tuesday night. Haley and Sebastian’s names were never removed from the ballot on DuckWeb.
The board made its initial ruling after deciding that evidence presented indicated that Haley’s Oregon Action Team slate had bribed volunteers with alcohol. The board’s reversal on Wednesday morning followed a meeting between board members and Vice President of Student Affairs Robin Holmes. Holmes said she and other advisers counseled ASUO Elections Coordinator Aaron Tuttle to allow the ASUO Constitution Court to review the ruling on appeal before removing Haley and Sebastian from the ballot.
“If, for some reason, that ruling is completely overturned, then they could potentially have biased that candidate’s ability to run” by removing her from the ballot, Holmes said.
Haley’s campaign denied the charges and appealed the ruling to the court. In her appeal, Haley asked justices to repeal the board’s decision and remove Tuttle from his position for negligence and bias.
“There is hardly a way to defend the actions of the Elections Coordinator, Aaron Tuttle,” Haley wrote in her appeal. “He has single-handedly committed a gross violation of jurisdiction by both charging and prosecuting (Haley) on behalf of the State of Oregon.”
True Blue Student Coalition legal adviser
David Griffin filed the grievance with the elections board April 13. In it, Griffin said, “The Oregon Action Team has provided fifths of alcohol with Oregon Action Team materials on them to minors in exchange for their support in the ASUO elections.”
Griffin said he could provide the board with an anonymous witness who would testify that Oregon Action Team candidates had given her roommate bottles of rum and vodka.
In her defense, Haley provided a statement from University sophomore Erin Cooney, who said she was the witness to whom the grievance referred. “The allegations in this grievance are completely made-up,” Cooney wrote. “I am disappointed in my roommate’s actions in her undermining attempt to support (Haley’s rivals) Emma (Kallaway) and Getachew (Kassa’s) campaign. My roommate is a volunteer for Kallaway’s campaign who obviously falsified evidence to submit this grievance.”
Tuttle provided the Emerald with copies of the Facebook messages that had influenced the board’s decision. The conversation documented in the messages was between Haley and ASUO Sen. Deborah Bloom, who is running on the Students First slate to retain her seat representing journalism and exchange students.
“I am not denying that I believe some of our candidates attended that party and put stickers on shit and wore shirts,” Haley wrote. “But I wasn’t there to stop it and I, Ted and Marcus told them not to do it. I am more than willing to face the consequences of those candidates’ actions, and I realize they fucked up, but it definitely, 100 percent, was not okay with me.” Haley has not confirmed the existence of this message.
Tuttle also provided an additional e-mail from Students First candidate Jessica Jones, who said the Oregon Action Team had planned parties in which alcohol would be distributed to minors.
“In those early meetings, before spring term and campaigning began, they informed us that they would be holding giant parties, during campaigning, in which they would offer free alcohol in exchange for voting at the door, but that no member of the slate would be present and therefore this would not be violating the election rules. This was fully accepted by the candidates present,” Jones wrote.
Haley told the Emerald on Wednesday that she and running mate Ted Sebastian never held any parties or provided anyone with alcohol and that the elections board did not have the authority to make a ruling on whether bribery had taken place.
Kallaway campaign manager Alison Fox indicated Wednesday there may be new evidence of parties thrown by Oregon Action Team and that an appeal could be filed to the court with new evidence.
The end of elections may also be postponed because of complications with registering students within the University’s American English Institute and Community Education Program, who are classed as separate from undergraduate, graduate and law students. Currently, those students are unable to vote. “They’re just not in the system,” Tuttle said.
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