UPDATE (7:50 p.m.): As voting drew to a close, the Columbia College Student Council Elections Board announced that it would not accept the alleged rules violation complaint from presidential candidate George Krebs. In a statement, the board said that a previous compromise between Krebs and his opponent Alidad Damooei invalidating their offsetting rules violations would hold despite attempts by Krebs in the last day to revive his complaint. Krebs aired his concerns to several campus publications, including Spectator. "The media focus this morning regarding the Spectator comment made by Diamond was the result of Krebs exercising his rights as a student at Columbia to bring his concerns to the attention of campus media organizations, not a pending rules violation," said the statement.

UPDATE: Alidad Damooei, CC '09 and presidential hopeful, told the Spectator Thursday afternoon the rules violation claim would be thrown out. Damooei said an earlier agreement made between Elections Board Chair Andrew Ness, CC '08, and opponent George Krebs, CC '09, would be ruled binding. Krebs could not be immediately reached for comment, but Wednesday he said that, while he had come to an agreement with Damooei and Ness, he had done so before he was fully aware of key information—namely, he said, a comment by CCSC President Michelle Diamond.

In the midst of voting for Columbia College Student Council positions, Krebs said late Wednesday night that he planned to file a rules violation complaint against his opponent, Alidad Damooei, CC '09. The claim was filed around 5 a.m. Thursday.

Krebs, the current junior class president, and Damooei, the current vice president for policy, are locked in a neck-and-neck race for president which seemed in recent days to be drawing to a dramatic conclusion. Voting began Wednesday and will continue Thursday.

The late complaint is in response to a comment from outgoing CCSC President Michelle Diamond published Tuesday in Spectator in which she said she was not choosing between Damooei or Krebs, but that, "Connect Columbia is a stronger ticket." Connect Columbia is Damooei's ticket.

Diamond insisted she was not endorsing either candidate. Diamond said she recused herself from the Judicial Board, which decides on rules violations appeals, to avoid the appearance of collusion. But according to Krebs' party, Experience Columbia, the comment amounted to an endorsement, which would violate CCSC elections rules prohibiting sitting officials from endorsing candidates.

"She criticizes us and then goes on to praise the other party…if anything it's an unbalanced statement that she released," said Adil Ahmed, CC '09 and Experience Columbia's candidate for vice president for policy. "According to the election rules, if a violation is committed by a supporter, it's also been committed by the candidate."

But Damooei countered that he and Krebs had already discussed the comment and reached an agreement. Krebs said he made the agreement before reading Diamond's comment in print.

"George and I sat down with Andrew Ness [elections board chair] and we discussed this and came to an agreement that he would not file on that and I would not file on certain poster violations he has committed," Damooei said. "I'm very disappointed if George decides to go back on his agreement."

Damooei added that he believed that Diamond's quotes were printed because of a misunderstanding and were meant to be off the record. "There's no malicious intent in the comment and I don't believe it violates the rules," he said.

According to the Spectator reporter, Diamond's comment was said on the record, though it is always possible that a misunderstanding may have occurred. Reached early Thursday morning, Diamond said, "I clearly made a mistake and I feel terrible that it was imposed on people who had nothing to do with it. In retrospect I should have known better than to make that comment even off the record."

"It’s interesting that George went to you guys before filing anything," Damooei added. "This really is an attempt to get negative publicity out the last day of the election."

Charges had not yet been filed when Krebs informed Spectator of his plans, but he had said that he would "definitely" file by 4 a.m., eventually doing so an hour later. "We are citing the rule that no member of CCSC may campaign for any candidate, expressing one's support for any candidate," he said. "Michelle made the comment to the Spectator that went to print after the moratorium period. That's a violation and thus violates the election in an unfair way."

Krebs also decried critics who claimed he exaggerated his involvement in the implementation of the Off-Campus Flex program, particularly because the issue arose so soon before the election, in the same Spectator article Tuesday. Diamond had pointed Spectator to an e-mail in which Peter Valeiras, newly elected Engineering Student Council president, described trouble he had working with Krebs on the Flex program.

"Michelle sent out an email that was written by Peter Valeiras in the last two days that portrays me in a negative light," Krebs said. "This email came out in December so the fact that she cotton balls it and sends it in 2 or 3 says before and talks to Spectator….suggests that she actively wanted to twist the election in a fundamentally unfair way."

Since the alleged violation occurred late in the campaign, Krebs said the complaint will be "sent as a statement rather than something to take action on" since the likely punishment, a reduction in the number of posters that Damooei could use, would not make a difference at this point.

Though a disqualification from CCSC executive board elections is in theory possible—given the short time span between the alleged infraction and the vote—depending on the election board's interpretation of the rules, although such an action has not occurred in recent memory.

In 2005, CCSC president Matthew Harrison, CC ’05, was censured for using his office to advocate for Michelle Oh, CC ’06, presidential candidate and then-vice president for funding on the CCSC Executive Board. Oh was docked 200 posters but won the election.

Ness did not respond to requests for comment late Wednesday night. According to election rules, "from the time that a rules violation form is submitted, the accused party will have 18 hours to file a rebuttal. From the time that a rebuttal is filed, the Elections Board will rule on the allegation within 12 hours."

jacob.schneider@columbiaspectator.com