Vandalism has been a major problem plaguing the election process, Student Assembly presidential candidates agreed Tuesday night.
The candidates criticized those who have ripped down posters during the SA campaign season, saying that it will hinder a fair election.
"I think it's silly. If you win an election, you want to hope it's a fair election. The students should get to decide, and people should not try to gain an unfair advantage," presidential candidate Dave Wolkoff '05 said.
The campaign has been fraught with poster vandalism throughout its duration.
It has become such an acute problem that the Elections and Planning Advisory Committee e-mailed students Monday asking them to report any incidents involving vandalism, and threatening to restrict advertising if the defacement continues.
The damage is especially damaging because of the $125 spending cap imposed on presidential and vice-presidential candidates.
"In such tightly-contested races as we are witnessing, every cent counts," EPAC said in its e-mail to students.
Jeffrey Shaw '04, a member of EPAC, said that nearly all candidates have complained about the defacemen.
But he added that some candidates claimed to be more highly targeted than others.
"I had quite a lot of my posters torn down, and I'm not sure why," candidate Jim Baehr '05 said.
"Any time people's posters are torn down I think it's a shame for the election process."
Many other candidates had similar complaints about having their advertisements torn down.
"Yeah, [my posters] got torn down. I'm not worried about it," presidential candidate Ralph Davies '05 said.
"People are expressing their anxiousness for voting to begin," he added.
But both EPAC and the candidates stopped short of accusing opposing campaigns of perpetrating the damage, and some candidates downplayed the effects of vandalism on their campaign.
"I've never seen my posters torn down. It hasn't been a huge problem for my campaign," Julia Hildreth '05 said.
Recently, the vandalism has been extended to the chalk signs supporting Baehr's campaign. Yesterday morning, advertisements for Davies' campaign appeared adjacent to Baehr's ads.
The vandalism doesn't seem to be targeted at any specific candidate and is most likely occurring randomly, Shaw said. He speculated that the random vandalism has been perpetrated by intoxicated students.
