Opinion ID: 1426237
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: President Springer's Nullification of the Election

Text: On May 6, 1997, President Springer issued a memorandum announcing her decision to affirm the SERC's nullification of the election because of the contents of the May 1997 issue of the College Voice. The memorandum stated in relevant part: The College Voice inappropriately used student activity fee funds to publish and distribute approximately five thousand copies of a twenty-eight page issue of the College Voice with a cover boldly encouraging a vote for a particular slate of candidates, some of whom are also staff members of the College Voice. Moreover, much of the issue was substantially devoted to supporting the endorsed slate of candidates. I find that this issue amounted to a thinly veiled student activity fee funded piece of campaign literature for the Student Union slate. As a result, the electoral process was compromised beyond its ability to be fair to all candidates, as argued by other candidates who requested nullification of the election. The April 30th to May 3rd election is therefore declared null and void, and a new election scheduled for the period Thursday May 8th, 1997 through Friday, May 16, 1997. President Springer testified that, in making her decision, the only election rules adopted by the SERC that she relied on were Rules 2 and 5. The defendants, however, agree that candidates and slates were allowed, at their own expense, to post and distribute additional materials beyond the thirty posters or flyers paid for by the student government. They further concede that, during the Spring 1997 campaign, both slates and some individual candidates printed their own literature and that this was not a violation of Rule 5. They also agree that Rule 5 was not a restriction on the content of newspapers. President Springer further testified that, in making her decision, she also relied on a non-election rule. This rule, although not part of the eight rules expressly adopted by the SERC prior to the election, was printed on the nomination form for candidates in the Spring 1997 student elections. It stated: All candidates are REQUIRED to submit platform statements for each seat they are running for. Platform statements should be no less than 50 words and no more than 100 words per statement. Statements will be published in the campus newspaper. Statements must be typed or submitted on disk and will not be edited, so be sure you represent yourself clearly and concisely. Deadline for submission of statements is April 21, 1997. I am aware of the guidelines regarding platform statements and am aware that failure to submit statements for each seat for which I am running for will result in my disqualification as a candidate. The rule's reference to the publication of candidate platform statements applied only to the Banner, as the official campus newspaper, and not to the College Voice or other CSI student publications. The student government regularly submitted candidate platform statements to the Banner but did not submit the statements to the College Voice. This practice continued during the Spring 1997 election campaign, in the course of which the student government submitted the candidates' statements to the Banner. The Banner published the statements in its May 1, 1997 edition. The day after President Springer nullified the election, the votes that had been cast were counted. The Student Union had won all thirty-seven positions for which the slate ran candidates. The Student Union candidates also won all thirty-seven positions for which they ran in the second election that was held from May 8 to May 16, 1997.