The Connection slate nearly swept ASUNM's election Wednesday but may face charges after 2,000 copies of the Daily Lobo were removed before delivery, stuffed with slate candidate fliers and distributed to bins around campus.
According to unofficial results, eight candidates from the Connection and two from the B.U.S.Y. slate will take the 10 Associated Students of UNM Senate seats next semester. They are, 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.
Four of five constitutional amendments passed in the ASUNM election, which drew 1,399 voters. Amendment Four, which would have raised undergraduate student fees from $14 to $20 while reducing the amount of fees allocated to the Student Publications Board, publisher of the Daily Lobo, from 12 percent to 6 percent, failed with 558 votes for and 511 against. To pass, an amendment must receive two-thirds of the student vote.
The election came off without a hitch, election commissioners said. Several losing candidates said they thought the election was fair, and no one reported plans to contest the results Wednesday night.
"They're definitely accurate, I'm happy with them," said candidate Christina Humphreys, who ran with the B.U.S.Y. slate. "I didn't win, but that's democracy."
Others, however, weren't as convinced.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
"I don't think it was fair all the way through - there were some behind the scenes stuff done that shouldn't have happened," B.U.S.Y. slate candidate Athena Spencer said. "Those who won, won, and I hope that they truly are there to represent the student body."
Besides the Daily Lobo incident, several candidates campaigning Wednesday afternoon reported that fliers had been illegally slipped under doors in the residence halls.
The newspaper caper began early Wednesday. A stack of about 2,000 bundled papers that were to be delivered to boxes and businesses along Central Avenue, as well as south campus, were missing when the delivery driver arrived to pick them up. Student Publications Business Manager Jim Fisher went to get an emergency run of 2,000 copies printed. Meanwhile, at around 8 a.m., stacks of papers began turning up in campus boxes with fliers listing Connection candidates. Additional stacks of papers were stolen from boxes around campus and replaced with the fliers. A report was filed with campus police.
When asked at a campaign table Wednesday afternoon who was responsible for the fliers, candidate Warren Ellis, the only Connection hopeful not elected to the Senate, said, "All of us, sort of."
When asked if the candidates had all gotten up early and placed the fliers, he said "There's no written rules against it."
ASUNM Vice President Steve Aguilar, who ran for vice president on the Connection slate last semester, said he and other candidates had done the same thing then, though to a lesser extent.
"It sounds like an honest mistake," he said. "If it was said 'this is wrong,' they wouldn't have done it. This is something that's not malicious."
Other slate candidates said they had no comment.
Daily Lobo Advertising Manager Valerie Medina said removing the papers and inserting fliers amounted to theft.
"Basically, it's like stealing an advertisement," she said. "We have regular advertisers that pay for that circulation."
Medina said that in the past, businesses had inserted fliers without approval and the paper charged them. The minimum charge for an inserted flyer is $350, she said. The total loss of advertising revenue from the undistributed papers will not be known until the remaining copies are counted Thursday.
"The funny thing is that if each person in the Connection slate had paid $8.50, they could have placed an ad this size," she said. "Or, in the paper, we could have run one for as little as $3.50 a piece. That would have taken a lot less time, too."
Fisher said the total cost of the lost papers was about $852, not counting the undetermined advertising loss. In the police report, the cost is listed at $180, based on the actual cost of the newsprint and doesn't count administrative costs.
"It will be interesting to see if this is taken seriously or not," he said.
Daily Lobo Editor in Chief Iliana Lim¢n agreed.
"It's not the revenue - it's the concept of not having control over the paper," she said.
Danny Milo, chairman of the Elections Commission, said the commission would have no comment on the incident until it looked over the facts.
The election results will be ratified today unless someone contests it. Contest of election forms are due in the ASUNM office by 5 p.m.
