Sanctions for Hill campaigning ignite controversy

The Election Board recently sanctioned the 10 LET’S ACT! candidates for campaigning within residential buildings – sanctions Bruin Alliance and Bruins United leaders say don’t go far enough and highlight flaws within the campaign sanctioning process.

Ken Myers, co-chair of Bruins United, filed the complaint on Wednesday. It included witness accounts, photos, videos and a screenshot of a Google Doc. The document, called “All Hill Point People,” listed the floors of Rieber Hall, Rieber Terrace and Rieber Vista and highlighted where USAC Election Board Chair Dana Pede, Election Board Vice Chair Eena Singh, the Judicial Board chair and members and candidates of Bruins United live. Bruins United members were highlighted in yellow and Election Board and Judicial Board members were highlighted in red.

The Election Board sanctioned all 10 LET’S ACT! candidates by banning them from all forms of on-campus campaigning Wednesday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and today from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The sanction did not include off-campus campaigning. Supporters of LET’S ACT! and Bruins United were campaigning in the North Village on streets like Strathmore Drive.

The Election Board also sanctioned the LET’S ACT candidates from active online campaigning from 4 p.m. on Wednesday to 4 a.m. this morning.

A similar “dorm storming” incident occurred in 2011, when that year’s Election Board placed all 10 Bruins United candidates on probation for the same violation and said any further incidents would lead to the candidates’ disqualification.

[Updated at 4:30 p.m.: In 2011, the board banned the candidates from campaigning for two hours during the Wednesday of elections week.]

After the most recent incident, members of the Bruins United and Bruin Alliance slates said they want the Election Board to do more to address campaign violations.

Myers said he doesn’t think sanctions for online and on-campus campaigning will hold candidates accountable today, since voting ends at 6 p.m.

“They need to do something more,” Myers said.

The board has the option to impose more serious sanctions for election code violations, including disqualification of candidates and holding another election later in the year, said Dana Pede, USAC Election Board chair.

“In the end, the Election Board has to establish a fair process … If at the end of the day, we don’t feel like there has been a fair process, we reserve the right to hold a new election,” Pede said.

LET’S ACT! presidential candidate John Joanino said he was surprised when he found out about the campaigning in the residential halls. He said he knew a strategy was for people to talk to their friends within dorm buildings, but did not know that LET’S ACT! members were flyering. Flyering inside dormitory buildings is prohibited by the election code.

“When I found out that flyers were distributed and there was a disruption, I was shocked,” Joanino said. “I am an RA and I know how important it is for students to have a safe place and not to be bombarded.”

Pede said based on the evidence submitted, the board found that the “dorm storming” by LET’S ACT! was a deliberate, systematic attempt to campaign in residential halls.

Pede said the board did not enforce a formal probation. But, the board does consider repeat violations as more serious, she added.

Myers also submitted a subsequent complaint alleging the candidates violated the online campaigning sanction, but the board did not find the evidence to be valid.

Election Board officials said they did not find the complaint to be valid because the evidence only showed campaigning for LET’S ACT!, not individual candidates. The board does not recognize slates, Pede said.

The election code, however, states that campaigning includes “promotion or criticism of any official or unofficial group of two or more individuals who are running for USAC office, even if the individual candidates are not mentioned by name.”

Pede said promotion of the slate is not necessarily promotion of the candidates.

Nicole Kern, a first-year political science student and the Election Board liaison for Bruin Alliance, also submitted a complaint to the Election Board about the “dorm storming” incident involving LET’S ACT!, which occurred Tuesday night.

Kern went to the Election Board earlier today to complain about its handling of the situation.

Kern said it has gotten difficult for them to discourage their party members from “dorm storming” or participating in campaigning that violates the election code.

“It’s hard to convince people to follow the rules when it’s like no one is being sanctioned,” Kern said.

Kern said she would want to see the Election Board disqualify the candidate with the most sanctions to set an example.

“I understand that Election Board is trying to hold fair elections, but it’s not fair right now,” Kern said. “I genuinely did this because I believe in the values of the election code.”

Matt Abularach-Macias, a fifth-year Chicana/o studies and political science student and member of LET’S ACT!, said he thought the sanction was harsh and prevented the slate from talking to students, which is the slate’s goal.

“At this point, it’s the last day. We just need to move forward,” he said. “I think people are just trying to create a narrative to make other sides look bad.”

Voting ends at 6 p.m. today.