The ASUU Elections Committee issued rulings on campaign grievances, barring the HOUSE Party from campaigning for two hours on Monday and requiring the Peak Party to move some of its posters.
The Elections Committee heard grievances at a weekly meeting on Thursday and posted rulings on ASUU’s website on Friday.
The committee ruled the HOUSE Party was banned from campaigning on Monday from noon to 2 p.m. The written ruling defined campaigning as distributing materials, posting on social media, making announcements in class and having impromptu or other conversations promoting candidates. The ruling is less than the half day requested by ASUU.
The punishment resulted from a grievance brought by ASUU, charging the HOUSE Party with campaigning in the Marriott Library before active campaigning had started, which is prohibited by elections rules.
According to the ruling, there was not evidence that the HOUSE Party had distributed campaign materials to students not affiliated with the campaign, but unaffiliated students might have seen the distribution of materials as campaigning.
HOUSE Party presidential candidate Nick Ferre, a graduate student in education leadership and policy, said the party was delivering materials to candidates and supporters and not campaigning, but he noted it is important to respect the process.
“It was detrimental to find out that the two hours of restricted campaigning was the peak time when ASUU was running an event to really encourage voting,” he said.
Peak Party campaign manager Janean Ford, a senior in economics and international studies, said she is glad the committee gave punishment to send a message. She understood the lack of evidence, but thought the punishment could have been stronger.
The Peak Party was ordered to take down all posters in violation of election rules by 10 a.m. Monday. The party was allowed to re-hang the posters in approved locations.
The grievance filed by the HOUSE Party claimed posters in HPER, Business Classroom, the Spencer Fox Eccles Business Building and Henry Eyring Building were hung on painted surfaces, in violation of campaign rules.
Maria Mooers-Putzer, elections registrar and law student, said to the best of her knowledge the posters have been brought into compliance as of Monday.
Ford said the ruling was completely fair. She said posters in HPER often fall down and are sometimes hung back up in unapproved locations. The party found HOUSE Party posters next to some of the Peak posters cited in the grievance.
She said the party usually handles poster complaints though the elections registrar.
“It was sad it had to go that far instead of a two-second phone call,” she said.
Ferre said the elections registrar told the HOUSE Party on Monday it had too many posters in HPER, but otherwise all the party’s posters were in compliance with election rules.
“This grievance committee errs on the side of leniency,” he said. “We would have liked to see them removed for the remainder of the campaign.”
The committee decided the HOUSE Party was not at fault for a claim that a party member was handing out candy in the Social Work Building. Election rules prohibit parties from handing out food of any kind.
“The violator was not identified as a member of the HOUSE Party within the grievance, and no time-stamped pictures were submitted to support the claim,” the ruling said.
Ford said the ruling was fair because the committee denied hearing a grievance filed by HOUSE Party with the same level of evidence.
“I really respect them for sticking to their guns,” she said.