In a 6-0 vote the student government election committee decided that the distribution of promotional fliers by the People Incorporated Party were in violation of Redbook.
The People Incorporated Party was fined $50, which will come from the money allotted to the party’s expenditures, which is now dropped from $1,500 to $1,450, as defined in Redbook. This amount is to be paid by Friday, Feb. 11.
TaNisha Walker, a core committee member of the People Incorporated Party printed 50 fliers that said, “Want to learn more about your student government? Want to get involved? U Can Make a Difference. Run for Student Assembly.” The words were printed above a picture of Napoleon Dynamite. Walker’s contact information was also included at the bottom of the flier. The fliers were distributed to peer advisers of the LEAP program and the information on the flier was announced to two classes of 25 students.
Taylor Morgan, presidential candidate for the People Incorporated Party, was the spokesperson at the hearing. Morgan began by reading an official statement made by Scott Ence, the Associated Students of the University of Union election registrar, stating that the election committee can judge the actions of a party by its intent.
“We don’t argue the story. We argue the intent of TaNisha,” Morgan said. “TaNisha had a very sincere intent to get freshmen involved in ASUU.”
Morgan explained to the committee that an underlying issue is that ASUU itself doesn’t do anything to promote the opportunity to run for office. Instead, it’s left up to the candidates and the parties. Walker was trying to promote students to run, and it was a misunderstanding that she had to include information from both parties, Morgan said.
“As soon we knew it had TaNisha’s name and contact information, we put a stop to it. None of our candidates running are a product of that flier. We take full responsibility for the miscommunication. The grievance is fine because it does put both campaigns in check and makes us both aware of it to prevent further situations. But upholding a grievance and having a ruling on it, we feel it is unnecessary because the situation has been resolved and we haven’t benefited from it,” Morgan said.
In a rebuttal, Ali Hasnain, presidential candidate for the Students First Party, which filed the grievance, added to the story that the fliers were not to sole project of Walker. He added that the funding for the fliers came from Ben Brown, a core committee member of the People Incorporated Party, in charge of marketing.
“I appreciate the conversation of intent, and I think that if it truly was to promote the candidacy in ASUU that is a wonderful thing to do. Intent is not something we can clarify by just saying that was her intent.”
Hasnain explained the purpose of the grievance being filed was to set a precedent for both parties to follow.
“Our intent is to make clear that no campaign should be doing this regardless of any misunderstanding or miscommunication. All campaigns will be held accountable for the actions that anyone in their party or supporters do,” Hasnain said.