Kirkwood out, Big Red in

The IU Student Association Supreme Court disqualified the election-winning Kirkwood ticket from the 2008 IUSA Elections on Tuesday afternoon, giving way for the Big Red ticket to take office April 28.\nAfter 48 hours of deliberation, the IUSA Supreme Court found Kirkwood in violation of six election codes.\n“There were many hours of debate involved,” said Kate FitzGerald, chief justice of IUSA Supreme Court. “It was not easy.”\nFitzGerald believes a congressional vote to validate or overturn any Supreme Court ruling is unconstitutional. She said Big Red will take office April 28 “barring any unforeseen circumstances.”\nThe Kirkwood ticket did not return calls seeking comment.\n“Personally, I have full confidence in the supreme court’s capability to reach the right decision,” said Luke Fields of the Big Red ticket, now IUSA president-elect. “I don’t think it’s the right decision because we won or the Kirkwood ticket won but that is what’s right. I’m very pleased to see that the judicial process is well and functioning on our campus.”\nUsually the Supreme Court would hold a re-election between Big Red and the INdiana ticket. FitzGerald said because the current semester is almost over there is no time for a new election. The Big Red ticket is considered the winner because they came in second place in the March election.\nDavid White, the presidential candidate for the INdiana ticket said another election would have been nice.\n“I’m glad they recognized it was a poorly supervised event. If they feel another election is merited, it’s sad that everything got pushed back,” he said.\nThe first hearing, which took place on March 26, found former Kirkwood congressional candidate Adam Pozza guilty of forwarding e-mails from the Big Red ticket to the Kirkwood ticket regarding campaign information. Pozza, whose name was removed from the ballot prior to the election, forwarded e-mails from a computer belonging to Fields, Pozza’s then-roommate. A 20 percent fine was placed on the Kirkwood ticket for all its campaign materials as a result of this hearing.\nDuring the second hearing on April 16, the IUSA Elections Commission found Kirkwood in no violation of 14 complaints Big Red filed against Kirkwood. But the commission did place a 40 percent fine on campaign funds Kirkwood previously spent because new evidence suggested that Joe Weis, presidential candidate for the Kirkwood ticket, also received an e-mail from Pozza.\nThis is not the first time a ticket has been disqualified. In 2004, the Big Red ticket was disqualified for going over their spending limit during their campaign.\nOn Sunday, the IUSA Supreme Court agreed to hear Big Red’s appeal of the election commission’s decisions.\nThe court found Kirkwood in violation of damaging property after Pozza destroyed six months worth of sent e-mails from Fields’ e-mail account.\nThe Kirkwood ticket was found guilty of two additional violations because Pozza deleted Fields’ e-mails and changed the subject line of the sent e-mail to “We gotta move!!!!”\nThe court found the Kirkwood ticket guilty of three violations regarding activity in the residence halls. One violation concerned a signed complaint in Wright Quad by a student who claimed the Kirkwood ticket was campaigning after 9 p.m. on his floor. According to the IUSA Elections Code, tickets may only campaign between the hours of 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. \nAnother violation was in regard to Robert Bercovitz, a member of the Kirkwood ticket who set up his computer in Gresham Food Court while visiting friends. This action violates the Residence Halls Association guidelines that state IUSA tickets must have permission to campaign in residence hall public spaces. Bercovitz testified that he was not campaigning for the Kirkwood ticket but might have solicited two or three votes while meeting friends. Either way, the court found this in violation of the elections code.\nThe final violation came from a student complaint in Foster Quad. The student claimed that a member of the Kirkwood ticket knocked on her door while she was sleeping and asked her to vote. The Kirkwood campaigner continued walking down the hall, knocking on students’ doors asking if they had voted, and if not, entering their rooms and pulling up the voting Web site. The court found this to be a violation of RHA guidelines that state that campaign members at no time may enter a student’s room or knock on closed doors.\n“I am relieved that the electoral process is over,” Fields said. “The work is just starting to begin. It’s been a good warm up, but now it’s going to be a marathon.”\nOf the IUSA Supreme Court’s 11 justices who helped make the decision, seven ruled against Kirkwood.\n“At least three of the violations in some way contribute materially to the outcome of the election,” FitzGerald said.\nFields said now that Big Red is slated to take office, the group must work to restore IUSA’s reputation after the controversy.\n“Whenever scandals happen on campus, there will be problems, especially when IUSA was in a very delicate position,” Fields said. “We will now be charged with restoring legitimacy with the association, and we have to roll up our sleeves and get to work.”