Actions taken by the Associated Student Government election commission early Friday morning have elicited mixed reactions from those involved in Friday’s runoff election, and some have questioned whether the commission itself needs to be re-examined.
Paul David Shrader, ASG election commissioner, said the group sat down late Thursday to address the campaign violations made by ASG Academic Director-elect Muhammad Safdari. Earlier in the day, Safdari sent a private e-mail to supporters that contained allegations against former ASG presidential candidate Bill Pulte. The letter was then circulated through many campus listservs. The commission decided to hold ASG president-elect Mike McGee’s campaign responsible, and published a statement on the ballot at 12:30 a.m. Friday detailing the violation.
Shrader said the commission chose not to implicate McGee and his running mate, Tommy Smithburg, in the letter, although Safdari had worked for the campaign.
“We tried to get clear that McGee and Smithburg were not the originators of this e-mail,” the Weinberg senior said. “However, it is the responsibility of the campaign to make sure everyone working for the campaign follows the election guidelines.”
The McGee campaign wasn’t cited for violating any specific ASG election guidelines, but was cited for violating portions of the Northwestern Student Handbook, including “knowingly furnishing false information to the university or any university official.”
“It was a tough position to be in,” Shrader said. “We tried to make an equitable decision.”
Mark Witte, ASG’s faculty advisor, said he was initially unhappy with the commission’s decision, although it was not necessarily a wrong decision.
“It seems like a strange thing to intrude into the privacy of the voting place,” said the economics professor. “It just seems unusual, but just because something is unusual doesn’t make it wrong.”
Former ASG Parliamentarian and former election commission member Will Upton, who also served on Pulte’s campaign, said the commission had to “put their foot down.” By the time the commission responded with a statement, however, the e-mail had already affected the campaign, Upton said.
“In the end it only added to the landslide effect,” the Weinberg senior said. “It helped continue to focus the election more on the claims made about the candidates.”
Bill Pulte, former presidential candidate and a Medill junior, had no comment about the commission’s actions.
There is a “slight possibility” that vote totals may have been leaked during the day on Wednesday, Shrader said. A message sent from Pulte’s e-mail address at 7:30 p.m. to the Pi Kappa Alpha Google Group claimed he had “49.6 percent of the vote” at the time. Shrader said he didn’t show anyone the results except the election commission at 6:30 p.m., though he said group member Wilson Funkhouser had received text messages from Upton asking for results at about 7 p.m.
Shrader said “it’s not out of the realm of possibility” for the results to have been leaked.
Smithburg, now ASG vice president-elect, said the commission made the best objective decision they could given the situation. The McGee-Smithburg campaign “lost confidence” after the decision, Smithburg said.
“All of a sudden we were like ‘whoa, how would anybody vote for us after reading that letter?'” the Weinberg junior said.
This year’s seven-member election commission was composed entirely of students with ASG experience, Shrader said. Undergraduates not affiliated with ASG can also serve on the commission, although they must first be nominated by ASG senators.
“It would be beneficial to have people from outside ASG involved,” Shrader said. “Almost all of the commissions are open to non-members and it’s often difficult to find people to serve on these commissions.”
Upton said pumping “new blood” into the commission could create problems if the members lack “institutional knowledge.”
“It’s one of those situations where you’re damned if you do, and you’re damned if you don’t,” Upton said. “You can get into a situation where people act more on emotion and on a whim rather than by the rules.”
Still, non-ASG commission members could make objective decisions, Smithburg said. But if complications arise during an election, arriving at these decisions become more difficult, he said.
“The role of the election commission is simple if the election is simple,” Smithburg said. “A lot of times their decisions have huge consequences on elections.”
