The election commission postponed hearing a third campaign violation against presidential candidate Andrew Kaufman to avoid issuing articles of impeachment. The violations were minor enough to wait until after Tuesday’s Associated Student Government elections for a ruling, said Adam Forsyth, election commissioner.
After a candidate has been found in violation of three guidelines, election rules mandate that the commission file articles of impeachment against the candidate. If he or she is then elected, ASG Senate will hold an impeachment trial to decide if the candidate should remain in office.
Forsyth said the commission felt that Kaufman’s violations were not severe enough to merit issuing an impeachment, nor were they done with malicious intent.
“We’re trying to use our discretion to be fair so somebody who three times has two flyers too close together isn’t punished the same as someone who has shown disregard for the election guidelines,” said Forsyth, a Weinberg junior.
Kaufman, a McCormick sophomore, was issued a warning for campaigning electronically before the deadline. The commission also penalized him $10 from his $100 spending money for having a non-pubweb Web site.
Forsyth said the third potential violation was filed because his Web site contained a misleading statement claiming he was endorsed by Progressive Alliance, a coalition of 11 student groups — which actually endorsed his opponent Weinberg junior Jane Lee on Tuesday.
Kaufman said he removed the contentious information immediately after being asked. Kaufman said the commission’s decision to wait to hear the third violation was just.
Still Kaufman said he is somewhat concerned the commission could use this violation against him if he wins. The election commission has the power to hear the violation at any time, so if Kaufman wins on Tuesday or in a runoff election they could then consider the case.
“I don’t think that would affect my campaign after all, but after the campaign is done with and there’s a clear winner, I think they could potentially use this to get rid of me,” he said.
Lee, Kaufman’s opponent, said she trusts the commission’s decision but hopes that they would treat all candidates the same.
“My number one concern is that there wasn’t preferential treatment,” she said.
In the race for executive vice president, Karla Diaz, a Weinberg junior, was handed her second violation Thursday and asked to issue an apology because her campaign staff wrote “Karla” over her opponent’s chalking, Forsyth said.
Diaz said the incident was an accident and that she had apologized to her opponent, Communication sophomore Howie Buffett.
