Due to certain campaign period violations made by Boston University Student Government slate The BU Ignition, votes were deducted from four candidates’ total vote counts, Student Elections Commission officials said Friday night.
The slate in question, The BU Ignition, violated parts of the BU Lifebook on Tuesday, said SEC co-chairwoman Tess McNamara. The offenses included sliding campaign cards under doors in residences such as Warren Towers, West Campus and The Towers Tuesday.
McNamara, a School of Education sophomore, said SEC members took adequate measures to ensure the votes were tallied in a fair manner. She said in total, members of the SEC considered the task at hand for about 10 hours.
“With that very, very extensive deliberation, we have taken into account the complaints filed, the appeals filed and all relevant information including documents and factual documentation we have received,” McNamara said. “With all of that collectively, we feel extremely strongly that the decisions that we have made are accurate.”
SEC officials deducted a total of 632 votes from The BU Ignition, according to the SEC’s official voting tally sheet. In a statement online, SEC officials said votes were deducted based on a calculation of how the campaign violations might have affected voter turnout.
This “400 point” punishment comes in addition to a “200 point” deduction for campaigning before campaign season officially began, wherein a member of The BU Ignition posted the slate’s campaign song to their Facebook page early, said Aditya Rudra, a School of Management junior and the slate’s candidate for vice president of finance. The post was taken down.
Presidential candidate Dexter McCoy, who was still victorious, saw a 167 vote loss, while CAS freshman Saurabh Mahajan seeking executive vice president, SED freshman Bonnie Tynes, seeking vice president of internal affairs, and Rudra, seeking vice president of finance, saw 146, 161 and 158 vote losses, respectively.
Before deductions, McCoy, Tynes and Rudra were among the elections’ victors, and would have been granted SG president, vice president of internal affairs and vice president of finance, respectively.
McCoy filed an official complaint with the SEC on behalf of The BU Ignition, to which the SEC issued a response explaining its calculations and process for deciding on the punishment.
However, Rudra, who is current SG president, said in deducting votes from each candidate’s total tally, the SEC violated its own policy.
He said slates are typically docked one allotted campaign day for these violations of this sort. SEC officials informed The BU Ignition of their violation Tuesday, but did not inform them of a punishment until 3:46 p.m. Friday afternoon, at which time there were no campaigning days left to take away.
“There are so many issues with that,” Rudra said. “It was an innocent mistake and should be punished by what the SEC can do. It happened on Tuesday — they had the time [to take away a day of campaigning] … to figure out a punishment that works but that does not actually change the election results.”
If further appeals are unsuccessful, McCoy is set to become SG president. Becoming United candidates Richa Kaul, a College of Arts and Sciences freshman, SMG junior Thatcher Hoyt and SMG sophomore Fiona Chen will become executive vice president, vice president of internal affairs and vice president of finance, respectively.
Kaul, who would have won even if the SEC had not docked votes from Mahajan, said SEC members technically had the right to make the call to take away votes from The BU Ignition.
“We signed a letter of intent and affirmation before elections began,” she said. “We were basically telling the SEC that they were allowed to make choices if necessary and that all candidates would respect those choices.”
She said she was confused why The BU Ignition was allowed to appeal the decision because it was not an amendment to the Constitution.
“It was simply a restructuring of the consequence to fit the circumstances and technically, that is something that cannot be appealed because it was not a ruling on a complaint,” she said. “At the announcement dinner, there were a lot of informal appeals made.”
Luke Rebecchi, CAS junior and the Can’t B Without U slate’s presidential candidate, said SEC officials should have handed down The BU Ignition’s punishment within the proper timeframe. He said SEC officials were supposed to decide within 48 hours of the slate’s violation but instead took 72 hours.
“As much as I think that the BU Ignition acted improperly, I don’t know that because of the SEC’s incompetence getting the ruling out in time that it’s fair to take votes from these people,” he said. “It doesn’t seem right.”
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Interesting that this is the coverage that this story is receiving. The real issue at hand (although it is strange that they ruled to remove votes) is why that slate was not disqualified in the first place.
“the SEC did not inform The BU Ignition of their violation or their punishment until 3:46 p.m. Friday afternoon” This is false, the candidates were indeed informed on Tuesday night.
It was not an innocent mistake by a long shot. They also started campaigning before the day permitted, and everyone on student government knew it. I am not on student government, but I find it hard to believe that everyone supporting all of the other slates was aware of this and BU Ignition was somehow oblivious to this. Glad to have people who campaigned fair win the rest of the seats.
I echo John’s sentiments. The real issue at hand is indeed the fact that the BU Ignition earned enough violation points to be disqualified- can we have a report on that?
I share the same opinions as those above. I am actually a bit shocked and saddened by the Freep’s coverage and I love to read the paper. There was no mention in the previous article that Dexter, angry, left before the announcement was made. What type of leader does that?
I understand that you guys endorsed the BU Ignition but it’s weird that even within this article you haven’t gotten any of the thoughts from other slates. It seems to me that if any of the slates should be pissed it should the Becoming United and Can’t B Without U. The BU Ignition has run out of fuel (and honestly, respect from tons of students now).
Hello all, this is the kid that ran for president on the Can’t B Without U. Just here to clear up some misconceptions. BU Ignition did start campaigning before the campaign period commenced, and they were penalized accordingly. Just keep in mind that the infraction at hand was accidentally posting a soundcloud file of their campaign song on Facebook, which was available for all of five minutes an hour before the campaign period began. As the opposition, I was more than willing to accept the violation, but it hand absolutely zero effect on the election’s outcome.
BU Ignition did not earn enough points to be disqualified. There is a 1000 point limit, after which your slate is disqualified. The SEC’s last ruling left BU Ignition with 800 points, 200 short of disqualification. The real issue here is that the SEC took over three days to issue a ruling on BU Ignition’s obvious violation of campus policy by slipping campaign materials under the dorm doorways of 1000s of students. If that matter was handled appropriately and in a timely manner, BU Ignition would have lost 2 days of campaigning and would have been forced to surrender a lot of campaign materials. Because the SEC took so long (their ruling came after the campaign period was over), they settled for docking votes from each of the BU Ignition candidates (clearly a power not ascribed to them in their own constitution), hence the appeal.
My slate was a few hundred votes behind, so this doesn’t directly affect me. But, I would hesitate before questioning the integrity of the BU Ignition slate, particularly Dexter who is the only member of their slate to assume office and who as of now will be our Student Body President next year. I mean, I can personally attest to violating a few SEC rules during my campaign, I just didn’t get caught. Keep all of this in mind, friends.
Lastly, as for the BU Ignition leaving the announcement dinner, keep in mind that the dinner started at 6, but because of a long string of appeals and discussions (that were literally happening at the dinner) the announcement wasn’t made until 8:30. Kind of ridiculous if you ask me.
Luke Rebecchi
Frankly, I feel as though many of the first couple of people who commented on this article have some sort of axe to grind. If you have a personal problem with any of the members of The BU Ignition slate, then deal with it on your own time. This situation is far beyond you.
The small infractions of the BU Ignition slate are not DQ worthy 1st of all. And the person assuming that the early campaigning by the BU Ignition was not accidental, how do you know? Were you a member of their campaign staff? Didn’t think so. So chill out and check the facts before you start accusing. Ohh and person talking about Dexter walking out…read Luke’s post. Also, have you ever heard of being human? Sometimes humans get angry and even make mistakes. Ever heard of it?
Thank you Luke for clearly stating the facts and stating an INFORMED opinion. I wish you and the members of your slate all the best in your future endeavors.
Also, we can fight and bicker about this little technical stuff as much as we want, but we have far greater issues to deal with. So stop nit picking and let’s use our time wisely. The elections are over. MOVE ON! Let’s talk about he BU Wrestling team…lets talk about GNH…let’s talk about student life.
That’s all for now.
Signed, Concerned Terrier