The Election Advisory Committee decided yesterday not to take any action regarding the recent controversy surrounding Student Assembly presidential candidates covering their opponents' campaign posters with their own.
Despite attempts to remedy last year's poster controversies, the EAC decided it will only take action if it comes across first-hand accounts of any wrongdoing.
Senior class Vice President Matt Shafer, who serves on the EAC, said undergraduate advisors and area coordinators may inadvertently cover candidates' posters -- and that a hidden poster does not necessarily mean another candidate intentionally covered it up in violation of campaign rules.
Candidates could conceivably frame their opponents by placing posters on top of their own posters and then contacting the EAC, Shafer said.
Anne Kanyusik '98, another member of the EAC, said the Committee decided to act only in instances where the tampering is witnessed, because of the wide variety of possible explanations.
As a result, the EAC warned Student Assembly presidential candidate Ben Hill '98 that his posters were placed over other candidates' posters, but Shafer said Hill's "campaign has been in no way affected negatively."
Yesterday's decision marks a compromise of sorts from the original EAC campaign rules and regulations language, which states: "Tearing down, defacing or tampering with a competitor's poster in any way will result in disqualification."
The harsh rules were adopted this year due to the furor over last year's elections, when candidates were accused of tearing down each other's posters.
After an undergraduate advisor last year witnessed one of the Assembly presidential candidates tearing down his opponents' posters, a public debate was held among all the candidates -- at which each of them was asked if they were guilty of tampering with the posters.
Although Unai Montes-Irueste '98 was the only candidate to publicly admit to tearing down posters, eventual winner and current Assembly President Jon Heavey '97 told The Dartmouth, "I know [Montes-Irueste] wasn't the only candidate to do it."
With yesterday's decision behind them, Shafer said, the EAC still intends to "take very seriously" alleged election violations regarding poster placement.
Assembly presidential candidate Frode Eilertsen '99 said he understands the problems faced by the EAC in enforcing campaign rules.
Scott Jacobs '99, another candidate for Assembly president, said "it might have been rather harsh [for the EAC] to disqualify any candidate for the violations that they saw ... it aids in the democratic process to have all the options available."
Hill could not be reached for comment.
The EAC has also received complaints regarding rules which limit posters to residence hall bulletin boards and the doors of candidates and their supporters.
"The EAC really can't do anything about the rule," Kanyusik said, since it follows an Office of Residential Life policy.
Jacobs said he thinks the EAC or the Assembly "could put up another bulletin board in every dorm just for candidate publicity."
He also said confining posters to a single bulletin board diminishes both the importance of student government campaigns and the significance of other campus groups that share this publicity space.
