None of the South Campus residential colleges awarded housing points to students for voting in April’s aldermanic election, members and former members of the dorms’ executive boards said this week.

A lawsuit filed by former First Ward aldermanic candidate Judy Fiske alleges that some student votes were illegally bought using housing points. It asks for the results of the election to be overturned.

Some residents of Shepard Residential College received points for attending a March fireside at which both candidates were present, said former Shepard executive board member and Medill sophomore Sirena Rubinoff.

The lawsuit alleges that problems other than bribery, such as voting from an old address, should invalidate 34 votes. According to NU’s directory system, 37 of the students listed on the suit for bribery live in Shepard.

Even if all of these votes were thrown out, the election results would not change. In the April 5 election, Fiske lost to Ald. Cheryl Wollin (1st) by 89 votes.

Weinberg sophomore Sophie Huterstein, who was president of Willard Residential College through Winter Quarter, said Willard did not give residents points for voting in April.

In the residential college system, housing points are awarded by the dorm government and tallied to determine the order in which students choose their rooms in that dorm for the following school year.

Points are tallied when Winter Quarter ends in March, Huterstein said.

“They would be worth nothing,” she said.

Students who live in Shepard, Chapin Hall and the Public Affairs Residential College — the other three student residences in the First Ward — also did not receive housing points for voting, former members of the dorms’ executive boards said. Those dorms did not host firesides.

Fiske’s lawyer was not available for comment to respond to students’ comments about points because interviews with students were not complete until late Wednesday.

Shepard held a fireside in its piano lounge on March 7 at which volunteers were registering students to vote, Rubinoff said Wednesday. Both Fiske and Wollin were at the fireside.

It is standard procedure to give points for attending firesides, said Rubinoff, who is named in the suit.

Fiske’s lawyer, Richard Means, Law ’68, said giving housing points to students is considered vote buying because students value these points.

“Bribery and vote buying is not just cash — it’s something of value,” Means said Friday. “It could be turkey, it could be an automobile. What is illegal is to give something of value in order to get them to vote, not to vote, to register, not to register.”

The suit also alleges that Northwestern University bribed student voters by holding a post-election pizza party for voters in Norris University Center. Fiske’s lawyer said even if students did not attend the party, just the offer could be considered vote buying.

Dick Simpson, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said Fiske has “no grounds for a successful lawsuit.”

Dorm firesides and the university-sponsored pizza party were legitimate activities, said Simpson, a two-term Chicago alderman and two-time U.S. congressional candidate.

“If you offered a voter $5 to vote for (a certain) candidate, that would be illegal,” he said. “To simply have events to encourage voter participation in elections is not illegal.”

Weinberg sophomore David Rubenstein, who is listed in the lawsuit, said he went to the pizza party in Norris but said it did not influence his voting decision.

“I didn’t vote (just) because there was a party,” Rubenstein said.

Rubenstein said no one at the party checked to make sure he had voted.

Means said even exposing students to ads for the party, at least one of which was in The Daily, is considered vote buying. The next step is to search NU’s records for proof that the offers in question were made, he said.

“We know the offers were made,” Means said. “Now that the lawsuit is on file, we’re going to be able to get at the university’s records and prove it.”

The 209 voters named in the suit are not being sued but may be asked to testify or give depositions.

The case’s first hearing will occur June 14 at Cook County Circuit Court.

The Daily’s Paul Thissen, Greg Hafkin and Scott Gordon contributed to this report.

Reach Marissa Conrad at [email protected].