Just a few days before student government election campaigning begins, running mates Adam Rahmlow and Pearce Whitehead have been accused of violating campaigning rules established by the ASPSU constitution.
The Elections Board held an emergency hearing yesterday to discuss the allegations made against Rahmlow and Whitehead.
According to E-board Chair Ari Wubbold, Rahmlow—who is running for ASPSU president—was videotaped while talking with the Student Veterans Association (SVA) about his campaign. However, the ASPSU constitution prohibits candidates from soliciting votes from anyone in the campus community before April 15, the official start of campaigning.
The constitution also prohibits candidates from posting any campaign materials on campus before the start date but an unidentified complainant spotted Rahmlow and Whitehead writing about their campaign with chalk on various sidewalks around campus.
In addition, Whitehead was accused of hanging up campaign posters near his dormitory in Epler Hall.
“There is some confusion around what is allowed before [April 15] and after,” Rahmlow said.
Before becoming officially recognized as a candidate, each candidate must attend on orientation with the E-board. However, Rahmlow said that he and Whitehead attended an alternative orientation because they were not able to make it to the others.
“This is a new process for us and it’s the first time we’ve ran for an election,” Rahmlow said. “There’s a definite learning curve and we’ve made some mistakes along the way.”
Commenting on the incident with the SVA, Rahmlow said that he left the orientation with the impression that he was allowed to speak to students as long as he did not distribute any physical campaign material.
The E-board later discovered that the literaturegiven to candidates at orientations were contradictory; one handout did clearly state that addressing students about one’s campaign was allowed. As a result, several E-board members decided that the board needed to be lenient.
“It’s obvious that [the documents] conflict,” said E-board member Aubrey Hoffman.
In addition, the E-board decided to drop the charges regarding the use of chalk drawings because there was no evidence that it had occurred on campus.
The infraction that the E-board will primarily continue to investigate is the hanging of campaign materials in Epler Hall.
“We take full responsibility of [this charge],” Rahmlow said. “Quite frankly, we just got carried away.”
Whitehead, who is a resident of Epler Hall, said that he posted the materials on his door and two of his friends’ doors.
“I take it as my home and I messed up on seeing the boundaries there,” Whitehead said.
Though the E-board dismissed the other charges, its members will continue to discuss how to handle the hanging of campaign materials—what they determine to be a very clear campaign infraction. Hoffman added that Rahmlow and Whitehead also violated another campaign rule: They did not have their posters approved by the E-board before distributing them.
The E-board will meet on Friday to announce its verdict. Some potential punishments discussed yesterday included not allowing Rahmlow and Whitehead to hang posters on campus during the official campaigning period. ?