NEC to hear 28 election charges

The Nominations and Elections Committee plans to better enforce its revised Fair Practices Code this year. If you are a student government candidate, don't plan on hitting the downtown parties tonight. You'll be in Houston Hall -- all night long. In fact, candidates would be well-advised to bring a book and a large cup of coffee to tonight's Fair Practices Code meeting, as a total of 28 charges -- which have to be dealt with before election results can be announced -- have been filed with the Nominations and Elections Committee for violations of the FPC, the rules governing elections. In response to what is perhaps the most visible conflict of this year's election, InterFraternity President Josh Belinfante brought charges against the Student Activities Council for a violation of the rules governing referenda. The charges brought by the IFC allege that SAC misrepresented the referendum voted on during UA elections. The referendum sought to restore the $30,000 from SAC that the UA recently allocated to the IFC. Belinfante alleged that through e-mails, posters and handouts, SAC officials "misled their constituencies and possibly extorted votes with promises of retribution." In his statement to the NEC, he concluded that SAC's actions biased the referendum and warrant its invalidation. Belinfante, a College junior, also filed an additional grievance noting that the IFC -- a clearly "interested party" -- was not invited to the referendum meeting, as it ought to have been, according to the rules. "The [NEC] will look at what [Belinfante] gives us and determine whether there was a violation," said NEC Chairperson Chris LaVigne, a College senior. In response to Belinfante's charges, SAC Chairperson Sang Cha, one of the resolution's sponsors, denied the allegation that his committee extorted votes, explaining that the e-mail in question was taken "totally out of context" by the IFC. Belinfante declined to comment on the charges last night. The last two charges were brought against the NEC and College and Engineering senior Ben Goldberger by current UA Chairperson Noah Bilenker, who is not running for re-election. Bilenker alleged that Goldberger -- one of the referendum's authors and past chairperson of the NEC -- did not clearly explain the referendum and the meaning of the two options on the ballot: "adopt" and "reject." Bilenker also charged the NEC with the same violation, noting that the committee did nothing to clear up the confusion. "I know people that had meant to vote against the referendum but voted for it because they didn't understand it," Bilenker said. "I had trouble understanding it myself." A vote to adopt the referendum would have resulted in the money allocated to the IFC going back to SAC, whereas a vote to reject it would have let the money stay in the UA's discretionary fund, earmarked for the IFC. Bilenker's second charge was brought against the NEC alone and alleged that the committee misclassified the referendum as "miscellaneous" instead of an "amendment." An amendment, which would require changing the UA constitution, needs the participation of 20 percent of all eligible voters in order to be binding, whereas a "miscellaneous" only requires a 15 percent turnout. Bilenker, a College junior, claimed that as the referendum was wrongly classified, the vote should be invalidated. SAC Executive Board member Elizabeth Scanlon, who will speak on behalf of Goldberger at tomorrow night's hearing, defended the clarity of the referendum, noting that SAC "did their best." "Although I believe the referendum was spelled out very clearly, you can't say it was our job to inform voters," said Scanlon, a College senior. Goldberger, who will be out of town, said he is "not worried" about the charge. Twenty-four of the charges were brought by the NEC against individual candidates for failing to turn in their spending forms on time, according to LaVigne. In past years, the majority of candidates charged with late submission of spending forms were generally absolved following lengthy hearings due to unclear wording in the FPC. However, in this year's newly revised FPC, it is explicitly stated that "failure to return a form without minimum 12-hour prior notification will be considered a violation." "Because the FPC has been made more stringent, NEC members are going to take late charges a lot more seriously," LaVigne said. And College freshman Ray Valerio, a candidate for sophomore class president, charged his opponent -- College freshman and current class President Cam Winton -- for a violation of the FPC regarding the poster policy. The poster policy governs where posters may be displayed. LaVigne declined to comment last night on the specifics of the charge.