Party accused of overspending

The IU Student Association Elections Commission will hold a hearing Tuesday to determine the impact of seven election complaints, including two alleging the Big Red Party overspent the election code campaign limit. If the complaints, filed separately by Crimson and Fusion, are accepted at the Elections Commission hearing, Big Red would have to give up its victory in last week's elections. \nThe complaints claim Big Red exceeded its maximum campaign budget of $2,785 by more than 10 percent and falsified its financial statement to cover the fact. \nFusion made the same allegations in its complaint, saying Big Red exceeded its budget when it bought 1,200 promotional t-shirts from Zucchini Prints at a total cost of $3,676.08.\nBig Red maintains the purchase of 600 of the 1,200 t-shirts was accidental and did not violate the elections code because campaigners did not use that half of the t-shirts. Those 600 t-shirts were handed over in boxes to the IUSA main office as proof they were not used as a part of the campaign, Big Red President Katie Diggins said.\nBig Red also failed to report money it spent on doorknob fliers, the Crimson complaint states. Big Red staffer Jeff Wuslich attributes the "honest mistake" to the fatigue of a long campaign and said the ommission did not impact whether Big Red exceeded its spending limit.\n"Unfortunately, there's been a few mistakes in this process," Wuslich said. "But everyone's human. We've made mistakes, and we've been very honest and open about them."\nElections Coordinator Derek Molter said all parties will be given a chance to make their case at the Commission hearing. He declined comment on the complaints, stating only that the Commission will judge each one fairly at its Tuesday hearing. \nCrimson's complaint against Big Red was filed after the 5 p.m. deadline Feb. 26, which would normally mean the Commission would discard it. But since the campaign disclosure and complaint deadlines are the same, the Commission decided it would accept Crimson's late complaint.\n"An undue hardship (is placed) on any ticket wishing to exercise their right to challenge the validity of another ticket's final financial statement," ruled the Commission Saturday. "Because such a right does exist, but its exercise is precluded by the deadline provision, due process mandates that this commission accept the complaint."\nBig Red also filed its own complaints against Fusion and Crimson.\nWuslich said Big Red filed against Fusion "more in an attempt to clarify the elections code," which prohibits campaigning within 50 feet of any library, than to attack Fusion.\n"I honestly can't really tell you how far we were from the library because our tape measure doesn't measure more than 200 feet," senior Fusion Presidential Candidate Dan Shapiro said in his party's defense.\nBoth Fusion and Big Red filed complaints against Crimson, charging that it sent an e-mail to multiple voters. The election code allows an e-mail to only be sent to one voter at a time.\nCrimson staffer Jeff Laffen said the violation was the result of an honest technical error.\n"When you're working with a bunch of people, people get fired up, and not everybody reads every single letter in the elections code," he said. "We regret it, and we'll take whatever actions the elections committee mandates."\n-- Contact staff writer Mike McElroy at mmcelroy@indiana.edu.