The ASUO Constitution Court on Tuesday rejected the ASUO Election Board’s election packet, calling it “constitutionally infirm” because the general election was scheduled April 20 through April 22, during the University School of Law’s Dead Week.
“Were the Court to approve such a date, then any such student seeking office would be placed in the untenable position of having to choose between preparation for a final examination and their campaign,” Chief Justice J. Michael Harris wrote.
ASUO Elections Coordinator Stephanie Day said she submitted a revised packet Tuesday afternoon that now sets the primary election for April 5, 6 and 7 and the general election for April 14, 15 and 16.
Day said that she was unaware that scheduling the election during the law school’s Dead Week is against the rules. She said that law student Colin Andries, a member of the ASUO Student Senate and the ASUO Programs Finance Committee, reminded her that an election may not be scheduled during Finals Week, but said he didn’t mention Dead Week.
Day said a grievance was filed last year because the election was scheduled during the law school’s Finals Week. Day added that while she understands that law students need time to study for finals, she was disappointed at the decision because it forced the board to move the election forward, giving candidates less time to campaign.
The court also had other objections to the election packet, including a rule that the court felt was confusing.
The court said the packet’s wording of ASUO Election Rule 2.5, which prohibits candidates from promising gifts or benefits in exchange for votes, is too confusing. The court deemed it “void for vagueness” because it “presents an incomprehensible morass of text from which no reasonable person could derive meaning.”
“Should the Elections Board desire to preserve the substance of the rule, they must do so by redrafting it in English simple enough that a person of ordinary intelligence could glean meaning from it,” Harris wrote.
Day said the court has approved the same language in past years.
The rule reads: “For purposes of this section, ‘service, opportunity, or other thing of value’ are defined to exclude benefits which would insure to an elector or electors as a direct result of an election or ballot measure outcome provisions or withholding of a particular service, opportunity, or other thing of value.”
A section of the packet also implies that it is merely “traditional” to have proposed ballot measures contain separate question-and-answer sections, when in reality it is a rule that ballot measures must have separate sections, Harris wrote.
An Elections Recruitment Fair will take place today in the EMU Amphitheater. Students are invited to attend the fair, which starts at 11 a.m. and lasts until 3 p.m., to get more information about running for office and to meet the ASUO Elections Board. The deadline to submit an election application is March 10.