Slate candidates sanctioned for violating Election Code

Two slates of candidates running in the undergraduate student election will not be able to campaign online until Wednesday, after the Election Board sanctioned them for violating the Election Code.

The Undergraduate Students Association Council Election Board cited LET’S ACT! and Bruins United candidates for posting promotional photos on Facebook before online campaigning was permitted.

According to the election calendar, online campaigning was set to begin Monday.

LET’S ACT! candidates posted a cover photo on April 13 that featured the slate standing in front of a red wall and wearing UCLA apparel. Each candidate was tagged in the photo on Facebook.

Although the photo did not explicitly mention the slate or the election, the Election Board determined it constituted online campaigning because members of the slate coordinated to post it on the same day and the board thought the photos could influence voters.

Bruins United candidates similarly violated the Election Code by posting similar cover photos on April 12, which included a slogan the slate commonly uses, “Be You,” and a fact about each candidate in a speech bubble on a blue background.

In addition to the slatewide violations, two individual candidates were sanctioned: Jaimeson Cortez and Kevin Casasola, both LET’S ACT! candidates for general representative and Academic Affairs commissioner respectively. A weekly newsletter from Samahang Pilipino encouraging students to attend the Meet the Candidates event Friday specifically mentioned Cortez and Casasola, which the Election Board determined to be a form of campaigning because it could influence voters.

While LET’S ACT! and Bruins United candidates will not be able to campaign until midnight on Wednesday, Cortez and Casasola cannot campaign for an additional 12 hours until noon on Wednesday.

Compiled by Katie Shepherd, Bruin senior staff.