A barrage of grievances filed late Thursday night against all but the Space Monkey Mafia Party delayed the announcement of primary elections winners until the early morning hours.
The grievance hearings were also delayed, pushed back to 9:48 p.m. from 6:30 p.m.
At the time of this newspaper’s deadline, the elections committee was still deliberating over the 10 grievances presented before them earlier.
The time pressure had even the chair of the elections committee, Kristien McDonald, under stress. She had not even read what the grievances were about by the time she commenced the meeting.
ASUU officials say that while many of the grievances are egregious enough to disqualify all parties, the elections committee will not likely take such action.
The grievances emerged after an audit of campaign accounting and financial disclosures revealed some technical mistakes.
For example, the Associated Students of the University of Utah’s special prosecutor, Kelly Ann Booth, filed against the Grassroots, RE:, United and neXt Parties for improperly filing contribution forms.
Assembly candidates from the RE: and neXt parties were prosecuted for not turning in financial disclosures.
Richard Goldberger, Student Government by Objectives was filed against for failure to have a copy of the $9.47 receipt for his one and only campaign purchase.
“I don’t [think the grievances] are necessary. I think they are being a little nit picky,” said ASUU president Adrian Johnson. He also said it would have been better if they would have brought them forth earlier.
Booth denies being a “stickler,” saying that there were “numerous” violations that they failed to prosecute. She says she is just doing her job.
“Redbook was written to ensure a level playing field and fairness in the elections. Our job is to enforce it,” she said.