The elections for the Student Confederation, AU's student government, are in their final week as candidates prepare for voting this coming weekend. The race for vice president has tightened after one of the three candidates ended her campaign this weekend. The campaigns have continued to gain attention as one campaign has been charged with violation of election rules. This violation was amplified by the release of classified information to a Web site. The campaign itself has turned to the Internet, as voting will be done online and four candidates have set up campaign Web sites.
VP candidate to leave race
Vice presidential candidate Laurie Barnes announced her intention to leave the race this weekend. Barnes has not officially contacted the Board of Elections (BOE) in writing, but has left messages for Chair Kyle Harding.
"I haven't officially announced it, but I am no longer running," Barnes said. "[The BOE's] office hours are when I am in class and I have been otherwise unable to reach them."
In order to officially end her campaign, Barnes must submit a written statement to the BOE, Harding said.
"I don't have anything official until I get written confirmation, but basically she told me that she is leaving the race," Harding said.
Barnes ended her campaign because she decided to continue as a resident assistant. She is currently an RA in Hughes Hall.
"I decided I couldn't give my fullest effort and still be an RA," Barnes said.
Candidate sanctioned by BOE, information leaked
Confidential details of a hearing of the BOE Tuesday night were posted on a Web site shortly after the hearing closed. Some information listed violated the regulations of the BOE, and other information that was permitted to be released was inaccurate.
For the hearing, the BOE met in closed session Tuesday night to hear a case against an SC candidate. According to BOE regulations, it cannot release the name of the accused, the position he or she is running for or who has charged him or her. The candidate was charged and found guilty of a violation of Article 5, Section 6 of the BOE regulations and Standing Rule 12 of the elections. These violations deal with use of SC or club allocations and offices for a person's campaign.
The BOE concluded in the case, labeled 0304-02, that the candidate had violated BOE regulations by using an SC copy machine to copy campaign flyers and Standing Rule 12 by using a copy code that he should not have access to. He has been fined $25 for the action, and all remaining flyers have been confiscated, Harding said.
The candidate's campaign spending limit was also reduced by $50 to $200. Overall, the candidate has been limited to $175 for his campaign, Harding said.
The Web site BenLadner.com, which covers SC and other AU news, published information Tuesday afternoon stating the name of the candidate and his charge. Then, Tuesday night, the information was updated to include information about the sanction that was incorrect, Harding said.
"In terms of actual facts, the facts that were placed on BenLadner.com are actually inaccurate," Harding said, visibly upset. "They are allowed to have the information about the sanction, which is something that they have wrong. They are allowed to have information on what charges were filed. They are allowed to have information about the case number and the time of the case. However, they are not permitted to have the information about the people involved, the complainant or the respondent."
Harding is working with the members of the BOE to find how the information was leaked to the site. Harding believes that the information is incorrect because the person leaking the information overheard the ruling and did not hear the full sanctions. Harding said he is unable to do anything about the site but will take action against the person who released the information. "As of right now, under the rules, I do not see any way in which we can take action against the Web site," Harding said. "All we can potentially do is take action against the person responsible for the leak."
Vote returns to Web Students voting on Feb. 28 through March 2 will be doing it through the my.american Web portal, as the SC has returned to online voting, Harding said. At least eight computers will be set up for voters to use during the voting in Mary Graydon Center 120. Harding has been working with e-operations to work out any kinks in the system, he said. The hours in which the elections will take place have not been announced but will be posted by Saturday, Harding said. The hours will be planned to coincide with TDR's hours of operation. Online voting was used in the 2002-2003 school year, but former BOE chair Polson Kanneth, who is currently a candidate for president, decided to return to paper ballots because of problems with the system. These problems included some students being unable to vote and others being able to vote more than once, Kanneth previously told The Eagle. Harding said these problems have been solved. Another problem raised is the ability to hack into the system. According to Harding, the individual IP addresses for those computers in MGC 120 will be the only ones able to access the online voting form, making it safe from hacking.
Four candidates look to Internet to campaign
With controversy over campaign posters being burned and flyers being torn down, four candidates for the SC have taken their message to the World Wide Web. SC presidential candidates Polson Kanneth, Matt Miller, Will Mount and comptroller candidate Will Prouty have all chosen the electronic route in their campaigns.
As part of their campaigns, each candidate is given $250, which can be used for any type of campaigning, including on the Internet. For Mount, Miller and Prouty, part of that money was spent securing a domain name for their sites. Kanneth chose to use the free Geocities service run by Yahoo!
Kanneth's site, located at www.geocities.com/polsonsc2004/, provides information on Kanneth's campaign as well as links to articles about it. The site opens in a pop-up window after clicking the opening banner, and has pages devoted to Kanneth's biography and stance on certain issues, including Public Safety, Park Bethesda, parking, and Financial Aid and Student Accounts.
Miller's Web site is located at www.mattmiller.4t.com and showcases an interactive menu system made with Macromedia Flash. It uses the questions "who," "what," "where" and "when" to navigate the site. Under "what," Web surfers can read about the two key issues Miller is running on - pride and budget.
Mount's candidate site can be found at www.mount2004.com. Mount's site provides information about his campaign, including what he wants to do and how he will do it, as well as a web log that students can write to. The site makes a few humorous statements about the candidate, such as in his biography where he states that he was "raised by wolves," and calls a recent incident of vandalism in Letts Hall where a fire extinguisher was set off as an "attempt on Mount and his campaign staff's lives."
Prouty's comptroller Web site, at www.comptrollerprouty.biz, is a single-page site with pictures of dollar signs and a Jimmy Buffet tune playing for visitors. The site includes his endorsements and his campaign platform, which includes improving oversight of the Media Board and AU Club Council.
The four sites have shown an increase of Internet use. Only one candidate, 2003 presidential candidate Jared Hall, has used a Web site before, Harding said.