ASUNM's Elections Commission is taking away the voting rights of some newly elected senators for violating campaign rules.
The VOICE slate will be punished after eight of its members were accused of breaking campaigning rules in the student government election on Nov. 19.
The three elected members of the VOICE slate - Nas Manole, Adrian Carver and Travis Maestas - will not be allowed to vote for the first four weeks of their terms, which includes two senate meetings and two committee meetings.
"They could still have their voice, but not their vote," elections chairman Jason Belitz said.
Belitz said the commission received complaints from the candidates' opponents.
The senators were said to be within 25 feet of polling locations and "dorm storming" - campaigning within the dorms during the elections - actions that are prohibited by the Elections Commission code.
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The senators will also have $50 deducted from their $250 semester stipend.
The five other VOICE candidates who ran but were not elected will lose $30 from their $150 maximum campaign expense, should they decide to run again in the future.
Also, VOICE will pay a $50 fine as a group for spending more than their allotted campaign budget maximum.
Carver said the elections code is ambiguous, which caused all of the members from the slate to be punished.
"The way that the Elections Commission interpreted the code this semester was that the actions of one person on a slate affect the whole slate, and the whole slate got charged, so that's why I got charged," he said.
Belitz said the entire slate was punished because its members campaigned together.
"If they were campaigning for themselves, they all would not have been punished, but it turned out that the candidates were campaigning for each other and the entire slate," he said.
The senators met with the Elections Commission Nov. 23 for a hearing, and the commission delivered its decision based on testimony from both sides, Belitz said.
Belitz said the elections code is in place to ensure students' right to privacy during campaigning.
"It's not good to be going into dorms and for students to be bothering them for the campaign for this election. I mean, it's great for students to get out and vote, but it's also another thing to respect people's privacy," he said. "In terms of the 25-feet rule, that's also to allow people their privacy when they want to vote, so they are not being bombarded. If we didn't have such rules, they would be able to stand right at a polling location."
Sen. Christopher George said he disagrees with the Elections Commission's decision.
"Some of it may be true and some of it may not be," George said. "It's like a referee who changes a score at the end of the day because one player yells, 'That's not fair.' That's really what this process is like. It's not fair to the candidate."
ASUNM vice president Alex Riebli said the Elections Commission strives to be judicious.
"Each side presents its case - it's just like a judicial hearing," he said. "You present your case and you present your evidence, and then the other side gets to present their case and their evidence, and then the Elections Commission gets to make a decision."
George said the commission should be more involved on Election Day by issuing citations, patrolling and reinforcing the campaign rules.
"When anybody can say anything and you are guilty until proven innocent, that's the reverse of justice," he said. "What happens is that the Elections Commission feels that they have to do something. They can't just say, 'Oh, we are going to have a hearing and then not going to do anything, because there is really no proof.' And the fact is that there is no proof and they shouldn't do anything."
Riebli said the process in place will hopefully deter people from breaking the rules.
"I think it's a good process, and I think it's a process that we see in the United States government," he said. "I mean, if there is a problem with an election, you can dispute the actual results of the election, so . if you feel that someone has cheated or gone above and beyond what they were supposed to do, then you can ask for that person to be disqualified or for penalties to be handed down to the person."
Carver said he also plans to reform the ASUNM elections process.
"I think that needs to be fixed, because there is just that ambiguity in the code that allows for the interpretation of the Elections Commission, and that will change every semester," he said.
