Rules Violations Mar Campaigns

In a campaign season that revolved around financial aid, diversity, and space, quite another issue was at play behind the scenes of this year's Columbia College Student Council race: the rules.

The 2006 campaign was the first major test for the CCSC Elections Board, a body formed in September to replace the now defunct Committee on Elections, Nominations, and Appointments. The council disbanded CENA in May 2005 amid claims of cronyism, secrecy, and inconsistent enforcement of rules.

Though the poster quotas and moratoriums remained, the creation of the Elections Board was accompanied by a number of notable trends and rule changes, some of which drew criticism from the candidates in this spring's race.

Candidates brought 11 total formal allegations concerning election rule violations this year. The board's nine-page-long list of candidate rules and regulations places tight restrictions on when and how participants can campaign. Parties are allowed to lodge a complaint with the board if they observe rules violations by an opponent.

The Elections Board upheld seven of the 11 charges, which ranged from early campaigning to illegal Facebook posts to absences from candidate forums. Most of the violations were met with a 25 percent reduction in the party's or candidate's poster quota-the standard punishment for a first offense.

"Enforcing the rules strictly is an essential part of fairness," said Elections Board Chair Jonathan Hunt-Glassman, CC '06. "I think it was definitely our goal to avoid making decisions on a case-by-case basis."

But several candidates objected to the rigidity of the board's enforcement.

"The problem with the rules right now is that there's no differentiation between a small and a big violation," said president-elect Seth Flaxman, CC '07, during the campaign.

Flaxman's party, Open Columbia, was the subject of three allegations brought by Evolution, the other party competing for the CCSC Executive Board. Two were dismissed, but one was upheld, costing the party 250 posters out of its allotted 1,000. All three cases were appealed to the CCSC Judicial Board, composed of five graduating seniors on the council, which upheld the original decision each time.

Others pointed to the race for student services representative and pre-professional affairs representative, neither of which attracted registered candidates, as a failure by the board to advertise the election effectively. One candidate, speaking anonymously, called the lack of candidates, "just pathetic."

"I do disagree with that. I think we've made a real effort to flyer, to e-mail, to advertise on the Web site the races," Hunt-Glassman said, noting that a number of outside candidates had entered this year's other races.