There is a sordid history behind ASUO elections: improper postering, vote-buying and assorted hanky-panky. It can sometimes seem like the elections begin the day the first grievance is filed. If that’s the case, the 2003 elections have begun.
Adrian Gilmore, a candidate for ASUO Student Senate Seat 1, filed a grievance Thursday against Damion Meany, one of his competitors, for violating ASUO election rules by campaigning within 50 feet of a voting booth.
Gilmore said there was chalking in support of Meany’s candidacy in front of the Student Recreation Center on Wednesday and Thursday. The campaign sidewalk chalking is a two-fold rule violation.
First, it is against ASUO election rules to campaign within 50 feet of a voting booth while the election is going on. The message telling people to vote for Meany was written 20 feet away from a computer in the lobby of the rec center that allows students to log onto DuckWeb.
Second, chalking is against University policy unless you clear it through University Scheduling, but the Scheduling Office’s rules prohibit chalking to promote ballot measures or candidates or any other sort of political campaigning.
ASUO Elections Coordinator Andrea Hall said she had spoken with Meany, instructing him that he needed to remove the chalking, but Meany left her a message saying he wouldn’t erase it. However, Meany said the reason he didn’t take the grievance seriously was because of a miscommunication. Meany said in his communications with Hall, he thought candidates were simply complaining because he had been chalking around campus, and he didn’t realize he was breaking a specific rule.
“I kind of got a little flip with her actually,” Meany said. “I kind of really blew it off and told Andrea I didn’t think it was a big deal.”
Meany said if he had known it was a violation, he would have erased the chalk immediately.
The ASUO Elections Board held an emergency meeting to address the grievance Thursday afternoon, but neither the plaintiff nor the defendant attended.
After brief deliberations, the ASUO Elections Board unanimously voted to issue a sanction to Meany against any campaigning for 24 hours, beginning today at midnight. The penalty for breaking the sanction will be disqualification, and if Meany attempts to campaign after voting closes at 5 p.m., he will be removed from the general election ballot.
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