The ASUNM Elections Commission issued its final ruling Monday on the 13 appeals filed to contest Wednesday's undergraduate student government election.
Several fines and sanctions were levied for various campaign violations ranging from chalking in areas sheltered from the weather to stuffing fliers in the Daily Lobo.
Barring any student court appeals, the ruling certifies the results of the election.
The nine members of the B.U.S.Y. slate will have to pay $59.00 each, the seven members of Campus Unity will each pay $3.50 and the Connection slate's nine candidates will each pay $84.50, and its eight winners will not receive the $250 stipend paid to each senator. The elected Connection members also will have to develop a plan to increase voter turnout in the Spring Associated Students of UNM election.
The fines and sanctions are among the stiffest in recent elections, according to Danny Milo, chairman of the Election Commission.
"At the meetings, I did point out that this commission would not be an easy one on fining," he said.
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The Connection slate nearly swept Wednesday's election - eight of its nine candidates will sit on the ASUNM Senate in Spring. The winners were, in order of votes received, Rosalyn Nguyen, Timothy Reed, Nicole Griego, Nina Pineda, Nicol†s Cabrera, Chris Bitakis, Paul Campbell, Sen. Lisa Marie G¢mez, Brian Lucero and Sen. Evan Kist. G¢mez and Lucero ran on the B.U.S.Y. slate, while the rest were Connection candidates.
Twelve losing candidates and one winner in the election contested the results on a variety of grounds.
Members of the B.U.S.Y. and Campus Unity slates contested the election on seven incidents involving other slates they say broke campaign regulations as set forth in the ASUNM Lawbook.
The two prominent accusations were that The Connection broke campaign laws by passing out fliers in the student residence halls, known as "dorm storming," and by removing copies of the Daily Lobo awaiting delivery, stuffing them with Connection fliers and distributing them to newspaper boxes.
Campus Unity was fined for exceeding the $100 campaign spending cap. Though they turned in an expenditure form claiming $99, the commission found that they failed to account for the market value of a Web site - $50.56 - which should be included on the form per the ASUNM Lawbook. The commission based the fine on seven Web pages violating the Lawbook rules for posting - 50 cents each, for a total of $3.50.
B.U.S.Y. was fined $56 for violations of campaigning distance - candidate Yousef Assed was seen entering the polling area at Johnson Gym, violating rules that state that candidates cannot be within 25 feet of polling areas on election day. The commission confiscated 112 fliers with Assed's name circled at a table in the gym and fined 50 cents for each.
The slate was also fined for chalking in the Student Health Center walkway, where weather would not wash off the chalk, violating University policy.
The Connection was fined $5 for violating the 25-foot rule, $4.50 for chalking violations and $75 for the Daily Lobo incident - the maximum allowed by the Lawbook. The sanctions were added because the total for the Lobo violation would have been $626 at 50 cents for each of the 1,252 stuffed papers counted by the commission.
Reed said the slate had no comment on the ruling.
Several of the candidates said they thought the fines levied on the Connection slate were too lenient.
"I think (The Connection's) number is a little low in comparison to ours," G¢mez said. "We didn't do anything in comparison to what they did."
Sen. Tim Serna agreed.
"I really don't have a problem with the fines we have to pay, but the ones handed to The Connection were pretty much a slap on the wrist," Serna said. "They have the right idea, but they just didn't go to the fullest extent that they could have."
He likened the Daily Lobo incident to stealing and said the punishment should have been more stringent.
"They broke laws, not just rules," he said.
Milo said many candidates overestimated the Election Commission's authority.
"We're just in place to see if there are violations of the Election Code," he said.
G¢mez said she hoped the fines and sanctions set a precedent.
"I just hope that with this we'll all learn our lesson not to do illegal stuff and think things won't go without being noticed," she said.
Serna and G¢mez said they were not sure if they would appeal the decision to the ASUNM Student Court.
