Two Student Government presidential candidates have been sanctioned by the Board of Elections, in a move that will halt their campaigns for most of the few remaining hours before voting.
McBride banned from campaigning for 24 hours
Presidential candidate Tim McBride’s campaign has been prohibited from any form of campaigning for 24 hours following a violation of election regulations, said Board of Elections Chair Dan Lewis.
In a Facebook post during the Sunday night Presidential Debate, Nate Bronstein mentioned his title as SG president while referencing his endorsement of McBride, Lewis said.
Election rules state that members of the SG can’t endorse candidates using their office.
The Board of Elections found McBride’s campaign to be responsible for Bronstein’s actions.
“Tim McBride’s campaign is at fault, because they’re supposed to be responsible for their endorsements,” Lewis said.
Because of this, the Board of Elections has decided to sanction McBride. He will not be allowed to campaign in any manner from 12:30 a.m. on Monday, March 21 to 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday.
Posters that are already up will be allowed to stay, however.
McBride said his campaign never violated any rules, however, because Bronstein was not acting at the request of the campaign.
“We don’t feel that we should be held responsible for individual supporters’ violations,” said McBride. “We had no contact with him [Bronstein]. This wasn’t at the direction of the campaign whatsoever.”
McBride says he will appeal the decision.
The decision will then be up to the Appellate Board of the Board of the Elections. The Appellate Board is currently a member short of the three required by the policy book, and a replacement cannot be found, Lewis said. The Appellate Board will have to proceed with only two members deciding McBride’s fate, a violation of the policy book.
If the decision of the Appellate Board were to be challenged, the case would go to the Judicial Board, which is chaired by Presidential candidate Anthony Dunham.
Dunham said earlier if an election violation made it before the Judicial Board, he would recuse himself.
Darmawan banned from campaigning for eight hours
Presidential candidate Jessica Darmawan’s campaign has been sanctioned for eight hours following a violation, the second by her campaign.
Darmawan violated election rules by putting a larger chalking than allowed by the rules on the Quad and having too many chalkings there, Lewis said.
As a result, Darmawan will not be allowed to participate in any campaigning whatsoever from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, March 21.
“Even though I honestly and truly believe this was simply just a mess-up, my job is to follow the policy,” Lewis said.
Dunham officially filed the complaint, Lewis said. But Phil Cardarella, a member of McBride’s campaign, provided evidence in the form of pictures of the chalking to the Board of Elections.
Cardarella “brought the issue to my attention,” Lewis said. “Anthony [Dunham] was in the office when he [Cardarella] was discussing it. He went out for himself and saw it and realized it was a violation and he’s kind of a stickler for the rules so he decided to file a formal complaint. [Cardarella] was about to file a formal complaint, but Anthony beat him to it.”
Election regulations allow for one chalking on North side, one chalking on South side and two chalkings on the Quad.
These chalkings are only allowed to be 36 square feet. Darmawan had three chalkings on the Quad, one of which was 88 square feet.
Because of this, her campaign must come to a complete halt during the eight hours on Monday.
mzoglo@theeagleonline.com
