Appeal delays election results

The Action ticket has appealed the election commission's weekend decision that rejected their complaints for being improperly filed. The complaint will now have a final hearing in front of the IUSA Supreme Court.\nThe complaint alleges that the Crimson ticket sent illegal chain e-mails, campaigned illegally in a food court and near residence halls and littered in the dorms.\nThe decision to appeal came after an entire weekend weighing options, said Liz Weikes, Action's vice presidential candidate.\n"We discussed the situation knowing that the Supreme Court will not usually overturn a decision made by the elections commission," Weikes said. "I know the students want to hear who will be their representatives next year, but regardless of who wins the election, the student body needs to know that some students cheated to get votes."\nUnity presidential candidate Aaron Radez sees it differently.\n"I think it's a disservice to the students that Action continues to draw out this process," he said.\nThe elections commission decided to reject the original complaint because Action did not provide enough evidence, nor was the complaint filed according to IUSA election standards, Leah Silverthorn, IUSA elections coordinator said. But it did contain some serious issues, she said.\nThe Supreme Court will now decide if these issues will be acknowledged.\n"There were some things in there I wish we could have gone through, but it was just very unorganized," said Silverthorn. "If the Supreme Court decides to hear the appeal, in the next three days, it will set up hearings. It's out of my hands now. It's up to the Supreme Court to reject the appeal or send it back to the elections commission."\nWeikes said that the rejection might have been because of time constraints and the amount of paperwork involved, rather than a disorganized filing.\nSilverthorn denies this claim.\n"The rejection wasn't because we didn't want to read it," she said. "I read it front to back."\nSilverthorn added she would be happy to reexamine the case if it should come back to the commission.\nAction has provided a disclaimer to their Supreme Court appeal, said Weikes.\n"It said that we only wish for the appeal to be heard if the elections commission decides to hear our Willke complaint and/or the Alpha Omicron Pi complaint," she said. "Both were formatted incorrectly."\nThe Alpha Omicron Pi complaint was filed against Action for alleged unauthorized access to the sorority.\n"We explained to the commission that it was a complete misunderstanding," said Weikes.\nAccording to a decision released by the elections commission Monday, the Alpha Omicron Pi's complaint against Action was not valid because it was filed past the deadline.\nThe Elections Commission also ruled Monday that the Crimson ticket did violate Willkie Residence hall policies, when Peter Kurinsky, a candidate for IUSA Congress, failed to contact the Willkie Center Manager before campaigning in the building. \nThe complaint was approved under Section 601 of the Elections Code, and the commission fined Crimson 5 percent of their spending limit.\nCasey Cox, Crimson's presidential candidate, said his ticket respects the decision of the commission.\n"We felt that the complaint was improperly filed, but we will adhere to the judgment," said Cox. "We want to speed things up to get the election results to the students before Spring Break"