Eight UA candidates may be disqualified

Charged with violating NEC fair practice code Eight freshmen candidates for the Undergraduate Assembly were charged last night with violating the Nominations and Elections Committee's Fair Practices Code regulations, according to Engineering sophomore Ben Goldberger, NEC vice chairperson for elections. Seven students were charged with failing to turn in their spending forms, which were due at 6 p.m. last night, and one student was charged with failing to turn in a complete spending form, Goldberger said. The students will be able to present their case to College sophomore Evan Fleck, the NEC grievance officer, at the Fair Practices Code hearing tonight at 7 p.m. in Houston Hall's Ben Franklin Room, according to NEC Chairperson and Wharton senior Ning Chi Hsu. Candidates will be disqualified if two-thirds of the NEC -- excluding Fleck, Goldberger and Hsu -- vote to do so by secret ballot. Spending forms are used to ensure that the candidates do not exceed $27 in their campaigning, Goldberger added. "It is really imperative for us to find out if the candidates are spending $27 or less because we really want to make sure everyone has a fair chance at the elections," Hsu said. Goldberger said the deadline is necessary so the NEC can sufficiently reconcile the forms. "We are not going through them [today]," he added. "This is the time we have set aside to do this." Goldberger said the NEC will not be accepting late forms, adding that in the past, some have brought the forms with them to the Fair Practices Code hearing. "Those who [bring the forms] tend to be more successful than those who don't in not being disqualified," he said, adding that this is not necessarily a causal relationship. Many of the charged students -- including College freshman Jordan Goldstein, Wharton freshman Peter Wright and Engineering freshman Jessica Williams said they were under the impression that the deadline was today -- not yesterday. But Hsu said she does not consider this to be a reasonable excuse, adding that she reiterated the deadline "at least four times" at last Wednesday's Fair Practices Code meeting, which was mandatory for all candidates. All of the candidates signed a statement at the end of the meeting confirming that they understood all of the Fair Practices Code guidelines. UA Chairperson and College senior Lance Rogers agreed that the deadline was made "explicitly clear" at the meeting. "Maybe [the candidates] fell asleep," he said. "The meeting was a little boring. They read through the whole damn Fair Practices Code, and that's got to be boring -- there's no way around it." Hsu said the NEC typically charges approximately eight candidates, but the charges are more varied. There are usually about two students a year charged with failing to turn in this form, she added. Last year nine freshman candidates were charged by the NEC, and three were charged the year before. UA elections were held Tuesday and yesterday. Hsu said 31 percent of the freshman class turned out to vote for their representatives. This is down from last year's 40 percent. The results of the elections will be announced at tonight's Fair Practices Code hearing.