After the fall election season, ASUI Senate updated its rules and regulations regarding the elections process,to provide clarity and fairness in the upcoming spring election.
Senator Max Cowan wrote the bill amending the 2000 series of rules and regulations. The 2000 series consists of election procedures, campaign definitions, and a newly crafted procedure for punishment of elections violations. The bill was sponsored by Senator Joe Heiner and was put immediately into effect with the approval of the senate and ASUI President Samantha Perez.
“The biggest goal of the bill was to make sure there was consistency throughout the rules and regulations and that it was easy to follow and understand,” Cowan said. “The biggest change was the addition of a procedure to deal with violations of the elections rules.”
Cowan said he did not think the elections rules were as fair as they could have been and his goal was to make sure the rules for dealing with elections were as just as possible.
“There was no real procedure for enforcing the entirety of the 2000 series of the elections rules,” Cowan said. “One of the biggest complaints in the last election was that many people felt that the campaigning was biased, that ASUI was not a fair place, that ASUI was not doing its job to prevent corruption and with this rules and regulations change we’d like to see that the elections reduce the appearance of corruption.”
The changes passed with a nearly unanimous vote. Senator Zack Goytowski was the only senator to vote against the amendments.
Goytowski said the provisions for dealing with elections violations could undermine the democratic process. He said the procedures are vast in scope and lack specificity. He said he fears the new power of ASUI to disqualify any elected candidate could be abused by elected and non-elected officials.
“The majority of the changes made to the rules and regulations were great. They added needed clarity and structure to the regulations,” Goytwoski said. “Unfortunately this was a package deal.”
Cowan said the rules and regulations do not assign specific punishments to violations because there is no way to account for every possible scenario.
“To try and list out which violations deserve which punishments is futile,” Cowan said. “In the interest of making the rules be applicable for a long period of time we left it a little bit open.”
Cowan said some violations are more serious than others, such as defacing an opposing candidate’s campaign materials versus simply taking down an opponent’s campaign materials.
Each election violation could cost a candidate a $15 fine, up to $200, or disqualification from the election if deemed appropriate by the elections coordinator and a voting committee.
“If a candidate was capable of looking at what kinds of violations deserved what punishments, in essence they’d be able to buy violations,” Cowan said. “You need the threat of the highest punishment in all cases in order to make sure that people comply with the rules and regulations.”
The changes to the rules and regulations also provide the ASUI elections coordinator power to suggest appropriate punishment for an accused candidate.
“In the interest of having a clear, coherent voice for ASUI it makes the most sense to have one person be deciding what the disciplinary action is and then to have a committee decide whether that disciplinary action is appropriate,” Cowan said.
Additional changes to the rules and regulations included clearly defining the terms “voting booth” and “polling station” as they are used in the rules and regulations.
“Voting booth” refers to any electronic device open to the ASUI voting site where ballots may be submitted, while “polling station” applies to all spaces provided by ASUI for voting as designated by the elections coordinator. Polling stations include computer labs, the Student Union Building, Bob’s Place and the Idaho Commons.
Candidates are prohibited from actively campaigning within 100 feet of such areas during election days. In addition, the updated rules and regulations provide that candidates may not actively attempt to influence voters around computers or electronic devices that have the ASUI voting page open.
Cowan said all violations should be reported to the ASUI elections coordinator.
ASUI president Samantha Perez said she thinks the changes were necessary.
“The changes were really good because it made our rules and regulations more clear and it also gave our elections coordinator the authority to penalize candidates when they’re running,” Perez said. “Now if you do something serious, you could actually be disqualified.”
Kaitlyn Krasselt can be reached at [email protected]