Just three days into the official campaigning period for Student Body president, the Elections Planning and Advisory Committee has already handed out its first warning of the 2005 election season. EPAC was confronted with two alleged campaign violations stemming from accusations of illegal BlitzMail messages and premature postering over the weekend.
Meanwhile, the race for Assembly vice president suffered two casualties Monday night, when Aya Caldwell '06 and Raj Shrestha '06 both folded, citing other campus commitments as their reasons for dropping out.
"I figured that I could handle it," Shrestha said, "but this past week with all the meetings and the preparation and all the campaigning we had to do, I figured it's pretty intense, so I decided against it."
The back-to-back exits of Caldwell and Shrestha leave three contenders competing for the vice presidency: Jeffrey Coleman '08, Chris Galiardo '06 and Travis Green '08.
Green is a member of The Dartmouth staff.
Caldwell had shared a ticket with presidential candidate Paul Heintz '06, who was the only candidate making a bid for the presidency with a running mate. Caldwell, who returned to campus this quarter from a leave term in the winter, said she "forgot the chaos of Dartmouth life."
"I think that SA is a great organization," Caldwell said. "I just don't think that I have the time to commit myself to it."
Heintz said he was unsure how Caldwell's folding would affect his run, but that he would be able to work with any of the remaining vice presidential candidates if he wins his race.
"I do think there are a lot of qualified folks running for vice president and I'm happy with whoever is elected," Heintz said.
EPAC issued its first sanction on Saturday to what was at the time a joint ticket of Heintz and Caldwell, running for Student Body president and vice president, respectively. A supporter of Heintz and Caldwell sent a recipient-suppressed BlitzMail message endorsing the ticket, which violated campaign rules banning candidates and their supporters from sending messages with suppressed recipient lists.
The violation elicited a warning from EPAC. Another warning could result in more tangible sanctions.
On Sunday night, EPAC reviewed an allegation that students supporting Riner violated elections rules by hanging posters before the official campaign period commenced at 12:01 a.m. Saturday morning. EPAC officials would not reveal the source of the charges, but the supposed infraction was brought to the committee's attention by a member of an opponent's campaign.
EPAC chair David Hankins '05 said EPAC investigated the situation and decided no violation had been committed.
"As far as we know, there's no basis for the concern," Hankins said.
Campaigning before the start of the official campaign period is a violation that results in immediate disqualification, according to EPAC rules.
EPAC concluded that Riner's campaign was serious about the rules and had a well-organized system to get posters up immediately after the start of official campaigning, Hankins said.
"We didn't start postering before 12:00," Riner's campaign manager Jim Baehr '05 said. "We were very clear with our supporters. That said, we urged them to put up posters immediately after midnight."
Baehr said he had heard rumors about which campaign made the allegations, but did not want to engage in "finger-pointing."
"We were really sorry to see that others are trying to gain advantage from accusation at the very beginning of this campaign," Baehr said.
Riner was in California with the varsity crew team when the entire incident took place.
According to Hankins, the fact that another campaign brought the concern to EPAC's attention does not imply the early onset of dirty campaigning.
"I guess it shows that the campaigns are taking the rules very seriously because they came to us with a concern, which is good news," Hankins said.
Hankins said the fact that EPAC has already addressed two situations in which rules may have been violated reflects well on his committee's ability to investigate concerns and deal with them quickly.
"From EPAC's point of view, they're both taken care of and they're both dealt with," Hankins said of the postering and BlitzMail issues.
Student Assembly will host the first of three forums for Student Body presidential candidates at 7 p.m. Tuesday night in Carson L01.
