The ASUO Election Board
didn’t show favor to ASUO Executive candidates Ashley Rees and Jael Anker-Lagos, the ASUO Constitution Court ruled Sunday in response to a grievance filed by ASUO Student Senator Kevin Day.
But Chief Justice Randy Derrick, who investigated the matter for the court, reprimanded the board for a “serious lapse of judgment” when it allowed a representative of the ticket to blow up balloons and complete financial paperwork for the board.
In a grievance filed Friday, Day alleged the board violated election rules because it was not “impartial throughout the electoral process.”
The court placed an injunction against the board Friday while it investigated, delaying the results of last week’s primary elections. Results were scheduled for release after 5 p.m. Friday, but the board could not release the results until rulings on grievances were made, Derrick told the Emerald.
The board already ruled Friday in response to a different grievance that the Rees-Anker-Lagos campaign is forbidden from campaigning until after the primary election and cannot campaign in the residence halls until Monday.
Derrick wrote in the decision that a member of the Rees-Anker-Lagos campaign did assist the board, but the person was not wearing “visible campaign attire” and did not “engage in activity that violated elections rules.” Derrick also found that the person’s conduct in filling out a purchase order didn’t violate ASUO rules governing purchase orders.
Yet Derrick ordered the board not to accept or receive volunteer services from campaign representatives during the remainder of the election, stating the board “demonstrated a lack of judgment by its decision to allow a person from a campaign to assist with a purchase order.”
“In conducting elections, the Elections Board must be held to the highest standards of impartiality and conduct,” Derrick wrote.
Elections Coordinator Kelly Cheeseman told the Emerald
that the board only received volunteer services from a campaign member during the incident in question. She added that the board was told it was acceptable for such volunteers to assist in “behind-the-scenes
activities.”
“That was something that I had asked (Vice President Mena
Ravassipour), and she had consulted with advisers on the administration,” she said.
Day could not be reached for comment.
Derrick also found the board did not violate election rules by allowing campaign signs to be posted near voting booths because the rules “do not specify space restrictions between the location of campaign signs and voting booths.”
Day wrote in the grievance that there were Rees-Anker-Lagos signs “plastered near voting booths making it an intimidating environment for students to vote at.”
Cheeseman said the board has already worked to separate voting booths from campaign signs. She said a former election rule prohibiting signs within 50 feet of a computer wasn’t feasible because of the prevalence of computers.
“It would be like trying not to be within 50 feet of a tree,” she said.
Derrick dismissed Day’s allegations that the ticket campaigned in the residence halls, stating the board already ruled on that complaint.
Cheeseman said the board was “generally relieved and excited to get back to their duties.”
Court rules that Election Board showed no bias
Daily Emerald
April 10, 2005
A sign declaring neutrality from campaign messages can be seen on the ASUO front door in the EMU.
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