paperlessThis just in: Colin Drummond’s CC ’09 Campaign will use 10% fewer posters after promising a poster-less campaign.  This is coming after Mark Johnson, current CC ’09 Vice President, submitted a rules violation due to early publication of this website.  The Elections Board felt that the violation was “not malicious, intentional, or fundamentally unfair,” so they did not reduce web content.  They may however, in a second violation, reduce web content instead of a further reduction in the 0 posters distributed by Drummond’s party.  Bwog fancies the ideas of negative posters.  Email is after the jump

 -JJV



 

On March 24, 2008 at 7:58:21 pm, Mark Johnson of the Fusion Party submitted a Rules Violation against the LE:MON party in regards to the discovery of the LE:MON campaign website [http://www.myohnine.com] on the Internet on March 24. In his form, he takes issue with the action as it relates to the following rules:

1.    Section IV, Article B, which states that permitted published web content includes website.

2.    Section IV, Article E, which states that the official start of campaigning date and time is 9:00am on Tuesday, March 25.

3.    Mr. Johnson argues that the www.myohnine.com website is a campaign material, as it “includes statements urging students to vote for them in the upcoming election” and also cites the corresponding Bwog post from March 24.

After considering both Mr. Johnson’s Rules Violation Form and LE:MON’s rebuttal, the Elections Board has ruled in the following:

1.    Even though the site may have been incomplete on March 24, it still had information that promoted the LE:MON party and its candidates on public display via the internet. As such, the Elections Board considers http://www.myohnine.com to be a campaign material.

2.    Because this campaign material was on the Internet and available to the public before 9:00am on Tuesday, March 25, the Elections Board rules this action to be a violation of Section IV, Article E.

As such, the Elections Board assigns a first violation to the LE:MON party as defined in Section XI, Article G. The corresponding penalty to a first violation is a 10% reduction in posters.

However, the Elections Board would like to note that the LE:MON party has publicly stated that they will not use posters, nor have they submitted posters for approval. Because a second violation results only in a further poster reduction (as defined by Section XI, Article G), a further rules violation may be met with an alternative penalty or can be deemed malicious, intentional, or fundamentally unfair (as outlined in Section XI, Article G).

If the LE:MON party wishes to appeal this ruling, please e-mail Michelle Diamond at mnd2102@columbia.edu and e-mail the Elections Board at ccsc-elections@columbia.edu.

Sincerely,

The Elections Board