Violations postpone student gov't results

Candidates running for student government will have to hold their breaths for another day.

Election results will not be announced until Thursday night, when the Nominations and Elections Committee will determine the legitimacy of two campaign violations that were filed last night.

As a policy, the NEC does not announce any results - even for uninvolved candidates - until all elections-related issues are squared away.

After voting closed at 5 p.m., Wharton freshman Steve Ariel, who is running for class president, filed two violations against Wharton freshman Arthur Gardner Smith, the current class president who is running for reelection.

The first violation charged Gardner Smith with exceeding the $50 campaign spending limit for all candidates by using color ink - which is more expensive than black ink - on the back of his flyers.

The second alleged that Gardner Smith violated the Equal Access Campaigning rule by campaigning on the Class of 2010 Web site, a site to which Ariel did not have access.

Gardner Smith declined to comment on the alleged violations.

Ariel could not be reached for comment.

The NEC would not elaborate on the violations.

The number of campaign violations has sharply decreased since the fall of 2005, when 18 violations were brought against candidates for using Facebook.com to promote themselves before the official campaigning period began.

After those violations, the NEC made a concerted effort to educate students about the rules of early campaigning.

There were only two violations filed during freshman elections last fall, neither of which were Facebook-related.

Still, earlier this spring, the NEC amended the Fair Practices Code - the rules governing student government elections - to allow non-monetary campaigning before the official campaign period begins.

As a result, many students took advantage of the new rule and created Facebook groups to advertise their candidacy.

College junior Dan Strigenz, who serves as the elections chairman of the NEC, said he thought the new rule affected voter turnout, which reached a spring elections record high of 41.1 percent.

"The changes definitely had an impact on the voter turnout and making students more aware that elections were in progress and making them familiar with the candidates," Strigenz said.

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