The group that oversees student body elections handed out its first official sanction in this year's contest for Student Body President on Monday night to presidential candidate Raj Koganti '08. Koganti was given a tier-one sanction -- essentially a formal warning -- for illegal e-mail use by him and his supporters. Koganti said that he plans to appeal the Elections Planning and Advisory Commitee decision, a move which would require a hearing be held to decide the issue.
On Saturday, Koganti sent out two mass campaign e-mails with suppressed recipient lists. Under EPAC rules, candidates are not permitted to send out e-mails to recipients whom they do not know, and are prohibited from suppressing recipient lists.
Koganti told The Dartmouth that the e-mails were sent to many members of the Class of 2008, and said he decided to suppress the recipient lists after misunderstanding the EPAC rules.
"I feel like especially rules regarding Blitz are not really clearly mentioned [in the EPAC rule book]," Koganti said. "I looked at it, and I didn't want to create a blitz war."
Under EPAC rules, candidates are asked to consult the guidelines for e-mail use outlined by Computing Services.
After receiving complaints about the transgressions on Saturday night, EPAC chair Kevin Hudak '07 immediately notified Koganti that he was in violation of EPAC rules, and asked him to ensure that his supporters were aware of the campaign standards.
Koganti said that he stopped sending e-mails with suppressed recipient lists immediately after receiving this information from Hudak, and reminded his supporters to abide by the rules as well.
Violations continued on Sunday and Monday, however, as other illegal e-mails -- including at least one with a suppressed recipient list -- were sent out by Koganti's supporters. After discussion among its membership, EPAC issed a tier-one sanction in response to the continued illegal e-mails.
Hudak said that he thought the tier-one sanction, which can be given to candidates without the need for a hearing, was an appropriate response to the infractions.
"[Tier-one sanctions] are for reversible mistakes or inadvertent mistakes," Hudak said. "That's what we're feeling [Koganti's] campaign has been doing."
All candidates are informed of EPAC rules during information sessions held before the commencement of campaigns.
Candidates and supporters are permitted to send e-mails to large groups of their friends, and may use the e-mail lists of organizations of which they are a part, so long as they do not suppress recipient lists.
However, Hudak said that the e-mails sent by Koganti and his supporters were directed toward too wide a group of recipients to fall within campaign standards.
"[Koganti] was blitzing out to enormous groups of people," Hudak said. "When you start blitzing more than 150 or so students, there's bound to be people you don't know."
Hudak said he hopes that Monday night's sanction will stem the problem. If violations continue, EPAC will consider stronger action against Koganti. This could include preventing Koganti from using e-mail to campaign for the duration of the campaign period, which will conclude when voting in the election ends at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday.
In the 2005 contest for Student Body President, the campaigning privileges of candidate Paul Heintz '06 were terminated due to e-mail violations. EPAC initially issued Heintz a warning after an e-mail with a suppressed recipient list was sent out by one of his supporters. When this e-mail was followed by another containing negative campaigning -- again sent from a Heintz supporter -- EPAC prohibited Heintz from e-mail campaigning for a crucial period of 24 hours. Other restrictions on Heintz's campaign were maintained throughout the entire campaign period.
The violation constitutes the first official disciplinary action in what has remained a relatively quiet campaign. Hudak said that EPAC has previously issued only a few informal complaints to candidates.
Hudak is a member of The Dartmouth staff.
