Polls for the 2008-2009 student government elections closed yesterday afternoon after record voter turnout, but results will not be announced until two violations filed yesterday are settled by the Nominations and Elections Committee.
Both charges were filed regarding the Class of 2011 Class Board and Undergraduate Assembly races.
In the first, College freshman Marcus Goodwin, a write-in candidate for Class of 2011 College Representative, pressed a charge against College freshman Lauren Albert, who is running for Class of 2011 College Representative and Undergraduate Assembly College Representative.
The violation claimed her posters were deliberately affixed to the ground in parts of the Quad, which is against a newly-instituted NEC policy adopted this spring banning posters from being posted on the ground.
The second violation was jointly filed by Wharton freshmen and class president candidates Andrew Dudum and Keith Williams, the incumbent, against College freshman and class president candidate Adam Behrens.
The two alleged that one of Behrens' banners was placed between two trees on the corner of 36th Street and Locust Walk on the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity property.
According to an NEC policy, posters cannot be placed in areas not freely accessible to all students, such as on fraternity or sorority property. All candidate banners that violated a rule against campaigning between trees were taken down early in elections, but Penn Facilities could not access Behrens' banner due to fraternity property rights. It is still there.
The NEC Fair Practices hearing will be held tomorrow at 8 p.m. in Huntsman Hall F90 and is open to the public.
Two violations were also filed following last spring's elections. The last time a candidate was disqualified due to violations was in fall 2005, when five candidates were disqualified after 18 violations were filed against 14 candidates for early campaigning on Facebook - a rule that has since been changed.
The NEC did express satisfaction with the large number of students that voted this election cycle.
"We're very excited about a record voter turnout of 44 percent this year," said NEC vice chair of elections and College senior Colleen Donovan. Last year's voter turnout was 41 percent.
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