Although the 37 candidates who missed a mandatory meeting will not be disqualified, they will have to pay a $25 fine.
The Elections Committee reversed an earlier decision Tuesday that disqualified all student body office candidates that failed to attend one of three mandatory meetings in January. The committee originally voted to disqualify one student who missed the meeting, but the ruling affected 36 other candidates.
After debating the issue for two hours, the committee decided to fine all 37 candidates rather than disqualify them.
“We wanted to be fair and impartial, we wanted to make sure our ruling was just on the fact of what happened,” said Olivia Howell of the elections committee. “We agreed on a fee and a written statement.”
The elections bylaws in Redbook, the ASUU constitution, limit campaign spending for General Assembly candidates to $100 and Student Senate spending to $200, including fines.
Members of the Impact Party who plan to appeal the ruling believe that $25 is too much and candidates could lose votes because of smaller budgets.
Impact, the party most affected by the fines, also wishes to appeal the decision based on principle.
“I’m concerned that if there are decisions being made not in compliance with Redbook, it can be done again and again,” said Heidi Spilker, Impact campaign coordinator. “We want to make elections policy as clear as possible.”
Impact will turn in their appeal today, and the case will go before the Supreme Court?a group of seven students with jurisdiction over all ASUU constitutional problems. The Impact Party can appeal the case to the Committee on Student Affairs and the Board of Trustees if they disagree with the Supreme Court.
The decision affects 24 of Impact’s 60 candidates, but only 7 candidates from the Elevation party. Elevation does not plan to appeal the decision.
“We feel fine about it,” said AnnMarie Allen, the presidential candidate from Elevation. “They deserve it. You don’t want to elect people that aren’t going to meetings.”
The Apathy and Probable Cause parties have no Assembly and Senate candidates and therefore were not affected by the fines.
Besides the fine, all 37 candidates must sign a written statement stating that they understand the election rules.
Impact plans to base the appeal on the lack of benefits from attending the meeting, inaccuracies in the list of non attending students and the policies in Redbook.
The elections policies listed in Redbook do not demand that candidates attend an information session, but Redbook authorizes the elections committee to take disciplinary action for campaign violations. Listed campaign violations in Redbook involve posting regulations and where and how candidates can campaign, but not attendance at any meetings.
According to the candidate information packet issued by ASUU, the laws in Redbook supersede the information in the packet in the case of a discrepancy.
“We are definitely sticking by our decision, and we think it’s a fair decision,” Howell said. “It was a mandatory meeting, the whole point was to keep people knowing what needs to be done.”