Complaints filed, hearing held tonight

Amid allegations of misconduct by the tickets aspiring to lead the student body, the IU Student Association election commission is meeting today to settle disputes. The commission, made up of eight students, will meet at 8:30 p.m. in State Room East of the Indiana Memorial Union and will rule on complaints filed by the Kirkwood, Steel and Synergy tickets. \nJoe Walterman, IUSA election commissioner, said the commission is hoping to reach a decision on all complaints Monday to announce the successor to the Supernova administration Tuesday. In the event of a tie, Walterman would decide the outcome.\nThe tickets will present their complaints accompanied with evidence. Third parties will also be able to participate within reason, Walterman said.\nLydia Roll, IUSA office manager, said there have been seven complaints filed. Kirkwood has filed four complaints against Synergy, Synergy has filed two against Kirkwood and Steel has filed one against Kirkwood.\nSteel's only complaint alleges Kirkwood improperly used the e-mail systems and sent out unsolicited e-mails to students. These e-mails, which were allegedly sent to more than 500 people at a time, reminded voters of the election and said to vote for the Kirkwood ticket. Steel wanted to file the complaint jointly with Synergy, Steel presidential candidate Jeff Wuslich said, but Synergy opted to file separately.\nWuslich said the Steel complaint is intended to complement the Synergy complaint, but he wished the two tickets had filed jointly.\nJunior Brian Daviduke, Synergy presidential candidate, had no comment pending the outcome of the hearing. But in a Feb. 27 article in the IDS, Daviduke said Synergy didn't file the complaint jointly because the ticket disagrees with how Steel has run its campaign.\nThe two complaints filed by Synergy against Kirkwood concern material distributed to voters. One concerns the mass e-mails sent by Kirkwood last Tuesday night. The other complaint alleges Kirkwood intimidated pledges in some fraternities with a letter distributed before voting.\nThe letter, which addresses the pledge as "Dear Pledge/Savior of the Greek system," said the Kirkwood ticket would see how effective the pledges were in campaigning for them by using the Votetracker System, which Kirkwood claimed will allow them to track exactly who is voting where. The letter states they would check the system and "your houses will be told exactly how well you performed."\nWalterman said this was the most serious complaint because there was a tone of voter fraud. He stressed this was a preliminary judgement. He also said the letter was hung in McNutt.\nSophomore Bill Gray, presidential candidate for Kirkwood, declined comment on the complaints but said he hopes the voters will decide the outcome of this election. \n"I firmly believe that the voters will decide this election," he said. "I met with Wuslich and Daviduke after the complaints were filed, and suggested that everybody drop the charges, allowing the popular will to decide."\nGray said Wuslich agreed to the proposal as long as Daviduke did as well but said Daviduke refused to rescind the complaints filed by his ticket.\nKirkwood's complaints all concern the campaigning activity of Synergy. One complaint alleges Synergy ticket members gave condoms to voters in exchange for votes. Another alleges Synergy members obtained a key to Briscoe Quad illegally and campaigned on residence floors without an escort in violation of Residential Programs Services policy. The third alleges Synergy campaign materials have defaced campus.\nKirkwood's fourth and most serious complaint alleges Synergy ticket members trespassed on Lambda Chi Alpha's property and attempted to force fraternity members to vote for Synergy.\n"Synergy came into the house without asking permission," said junior Mike Miller, Lambda Chi Alpha president. "I am responsive to any request to speak to the members of my house, but I do not appreciate it when they solicit the men of Lambda Chi behind my back."\nMiller said after entering the fraternity without permission, Synergy ticket members went room-to-room, pressuring the men of Lambda Chi to vote for their ticket.\n"If a fraternity cornered men who were rushing in their rooms and pressured them to join it would be punished severely," Miller said. "It's called hotboxing, and that's wrong. There is no reason why an IUSA ticket should be able to intimidate people to vote for them."\nWuslich said he believes the complaints help maintain the integrity of IUSA elections.\n"The complaints may seem petty in the short run, but students need to realize that we are not trying to gripe about every little thing," he said. "In the long run they keep the elections clean and fair and maintain the integrity of IUSA."\nWuslich is pleased that there are no complaints filed against his ticket.\n"At every meeting we stressed the importance of running a fair, clean campaign," he said. "It's very easy to run a clean campaign, and Steel proved that."\nWalterman said the punishments if the tickets are found guilty can vary.\n"Punishments can include monetary fines, disqualification of individual candidates, disqualification of an entire ticket or a new election," he said. "Obviously serious infractions require severe punishments"