Election upheld: Judicial Council reaffirms election results, dismisses campaign misconduct charges in closed hearings

By Megan Higdon
Western Herald

Any possibility of a repeat of last year’s Western Student Association presidential election scandal has been ruled out after the Judicial Council heard three cases Sunday afternoon.

Marissa Ingle/Western Herald | The Western Student Association’s Judicial Council hears a case of the Ladd/Rettich campaign versus the Elections Control Committee in the Alfred B. Connable Board of Trustees conference room in the Bernhard Center of Western Michigan University.

The trials concerned the ethics of Aaron Booth’s campaign. The JC ruled in favor of Booth, who will be inaugurated as WSA president at Wednesday’s senate meeting.
Booth received 892 votes, Andrew Ladd 716.

The first two trials concerned demerits against to the Booth-Blaszczyk campaign for breaking campaign regulations.

In the third trial, Andrew Ladd contested the election results because complaints of campaign misconduct were not properly addressed by the JC.

The first and second trials were closed to the public and the press by request of the defendant, ECC Chair Alex Roman.

According to the Michigan Open Meetings Act of 1976, the defendant in a student trial has the ability to decide if the meeting is open or closed. Roman said on Saturday that the meetings would be open, but changed his mind on the day of trial.

Roman said that the first two trials were both so minor that they would not have had an effect on the outcome of the election.

His second reason was that he did not want “any confusion” regarding the presence of Booth’s advocate, current WSA president Nate Knappen.

Roman said he did not want any misconceptions that Knappen was representing the WSA in any way.

Knappen was chosen because he had experience with the Judicial Council’s trial process during last year’s election, where he was charged with violating election code.

“We chose Nate because he went through all of this,” Booth said. “He knew what he was doing.”

A number of the members of the Judicial Council felt similar on having the first two trials private but agreed to be open and prepared for questions after the trials.

The first trial of the Booth-Blaszczyk campaign versus the ECC was in regards to drawing in chalk underneath the overhang of the Bernhard Center. Chief Justice Alexander Smith explained the chalk was drawn at 5 a.m. and removed by 9 a.m. on the same day. He went on to say that giving a demerit to the campaign would have been “purely punitive and unnecessary.”

Roman was not able to attend the first trial, so Justice James Stano acted in his place.

The JC voted 5-1 in favor of Booth, with one abstaining.

The second trial concerned an appeal of a demerit regarding a mass e-mail sent to the Panhellenic Council encouraging a vote for Booth. In this case, Erin Kaplan, a member of Booth’s slate, sent e-mails to members of the council. The Judicial Council ruled that it was acceptable because Kaplan is a member of the sorority, Alpha Omicron Pi, which is a part of Panhellenic.

Kaplan is also a news writer for the Western Herald. The results in this case were 6-1 in favor of Booth.

“I am very happy with the outcome,” Booth said. “I’m glad we can move onto new business.”

In the final trial, the Ladd-Rettich campaign contested the election results because complaints they filed were not, in their opinion, properly handled.
Roman allowed the trial to be open to the press, citing that it would have a heavier outcome on the election results and therefore it was more important to have open.

“I felt that the press had a reason to be in there at that point,” he said.

Plaintiffs Andrew Ladd and Chris Rettich filed a suit against the ECC for not issuing proper violations for rules that they felt were broken by the Booth-Blaszczyk campaign and to the chair for not properly following the Student Election Code.

Ladd and Rettich represented themselves.

Booth was brought in as an expert witness with WMU graduate student Devorah Glanz as his counsel.

Ladd accused that the Booth-Blaszczyk violated the Student Election Code. One of examples Ladd gave was that the Booth campaign solicited votes within the “Food Tube,” which connects Henry Hall to Hoekje/Bigelow Dining Hall.

Ladd said that it was not a proper place to campaign because, in his opinion, it is a building. Roman thought otherwise.

“I feel like it is not a building whatsoever,” Roman said.

Ladd filed four complaints to the ECC during the election, three of which were properly discussed by the ECC. The one complaint not discussed concerned allegations that the Booth-Blaszczyk campaign was soliciting votes at the flagpoles on campus on the last day of the election and did not receive permission by the ECC to do so, Ladd said.

Booth and Roman estimated that 60 students could have been influenced to vote at the flagpoles and in the Food Tube. At the end of the trial the Judicial Council made a guess that approximately 61 students could have been reached to vote Booth-Blaszcyk through a possible violation of rules.

The added “one” was the one person who clicked on the link to go vote for Booth through the mass e-mail sent to the Panhellenic Council. The e-mail had been ruled reasonable in the previous trial, but Ladd said it was still unethical.

Booth said his campaign could tell the number of impressions from the e-mail through the Constant Contact e-mail service they used.

“I have full confidence that the ECC made the correct decisions,” Roman said. “I feel that the results are accurate and reflect the will of the student body.”

In order to change the results, Ladd would have had to receive 114 more votes. Ladd felt that many of Booth’s votes were received unethically.

“It wasn’t about me being a sore loser,” Ladd said after the trial. “It’s disrespectful to voters.”

“None of those [votes from 61 students who could have been influenced] were found to be actually improper,” Senior Justice Katelyn Kivel said.

“Sixty-one was not enough to satisfy the Judicial Council, it needed to be 114.”

The Judicial Council voted unanimously 7-0-0 in favor of the ECC.

Kivel said that each trial was fair, fast and final.

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Posted by heraldstaff on Mar 28 2010. Filed under Breaking, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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