Recent election practices formally questioned, prompts SGA to suggest runoff

Candidate found in violation of two guidelines

The SGA declared grounds for a presidential runoff Friday when one candidate was charged with violating campaign regulations. However, SGA senator Lucy Hutchinson has declined to run a second time.

President-elect Wesli Spencer’s campaign was deemed to have perpetrated actions that violated the Election Commission’s guidelines.

The charges stemmed from allegations of campaign misconduct in a formal appeal filed regarding the March 31 SGA elections.

Junior Elizabeth Anderson and senior Ricardo Pineres filed a petition contending that Wesli Spencer’s campaign violated campaigning regulations. Spencer won the race for student body president against Hutchinson and Katie Landi.

The Elections Commission, a student-run board that governs Student Government elections, met Friday to discuss the petition and hear from Anderson, Pineres and Spencer. According to Kristen Muncy, SGA advisor and advisor to the Elections Commission, once an appeal is filed, the Elections Commission has 24 hours to meet and hear the both sides of the argument.

The petitioners claimed the Spencer campaign violated 11 of the 18 regulations set forth by the Elections Commission. Only two violations were considered by the commission to be discussed in the meeting.

The first violation stems from members of the Spencer campaign escorting students into Warren Hall to vote.

The petitioners, from Hutchinson’s campaign, asked that Spencer be disqualified from the election due to his misconduct.

"Although Mr. Spencer did obtain a clear majority of the votes in the first election, the Commission found his campaign responsible for violating the Elections Commissions Guidelines," according to the public statement released by the commission after their deliberation. They decided to have a runoff election between Spencer and the runner-up, junior Lucy Hutchinson.

During the commission meeting, Spencer maintained he and his campaign staff never intentionally violated regulations. The Elections Comission meeting began with Anderson presenting the two violations the commission agreed to consider. She said the Spencer campaign violated Article VIII, Section A of the Elections Policy, which states that campaigning is prohibited in or within 100 feet of restricted areas used as polling sites.

Stephanie Genco, student representative-elect to the Board of Visitors, and Anderson witnessed two girls from the Spencer campaign escorting students through the doors of Warren Hall. The area was designated a polling location and candidates told specifically not to campaign on the Warren Hall patio during a meeting held March 23.

Genco said she telephoned members of the Elections Commission but could not reach them. She said she then went to the SGA office, where she found Julianne Maguire, co-chair of the Elections Commission, and brought her to Warren Hall. Maguire witnessed the two girls escorting several students toward the computers.

Maguire said she saw the two girls but they stopped when they saw her and turned and walked back toward the commons, leaving the students to walk to the computers.

Spencer said the girls may not have been aware of the rule and may not have realized they were 100 feet away. He said the girls stopped once they found out that it was against regulations.

Anderson said they saw between two and four people being escorted on four occasions. All witnessed violations of this regulation occurred after 6:30 p.m., with only 30 minutes left in the election.

A member of the Elections Commission said, at most, 16 students were escorted to the polls. Spencer said he was willing to void 16 votes from those he received.

Pineres said they are not petitioning the number of votes but rather presenting that the escorting of students could have been occurring all day.

The second violation alleged defamation by members of the Spencer campaign.

Evidence was presented in the form of an AOL Instant Messenger away message belonging to a member of the Spencer campaign, a voicemail left on the phone of a member of the Hutchinson campaign staff and a vandalized poster of Hutchinson.

Anderson said that Spencer participated in a dirty and unfair campaign and insisted that he be disqualified from the elections.

Spencer said, "We were running for a position and not against other people."

"If any of the violations had significantly altered the results, then I would have understood [the appeal]," Spencer said.

Although the Elections Commission meeting and deliberation were open to the public by order of the Freedom of Information Act, the commission suggested no outside persons be present for the deliberation to allow the commission to speak freely and allow privacy to the candidates.