IUSA tickets campaign at Kilroy’s

Kilroy’s Bar N’ Grill is frequently flooded with groups of students wearing color-coded T-shirts and celebrating bar crawls, birthdays and bachelorette parties.

But Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning, people wearing red and orange T-shirts representing rival IU Student Association tickets were doing more than just raising bar tabs – they were raising vote tallies.

Both the Btown and Red-Hot tickets were soliciting votes in and out of Kilroy’s Bar N’ Grill, causing some IU leaders to question the ethical implications of seeking votes from students under the influence of alcohol.

Dean of Students Dick McKaig said the situation “sounds questionable” but added it is “not automatically reprehensible of the two tickets.”

“Students need to be responsible enough to make decisions,” McKaig said.

The current administration, known as the Big Red ticket in last year’s race, did not campaign at bars during last year’s election.

“We thought it could have a negative connotation to it,” said senior Luke Fields, current IUSA president. “We were concerned that there would be potential problems.”
On Tuesday, members of Btown sat in front of laptops at a table on Kilroy’s outdoor patio, asking students in and out of the bar for votes.

Members of Red-Hot were stationed inside in two locations. A table near the front of the bar had several empty bottles of beer and a bottle of vodka covering a Red-Hot banner. The ticket also used a computer in the back of the bar for student votes, said junior Mary Kelley, vice presidential candidate for Red-Hot.

Peter SerVaas, presidential candidate for the Btown ticket, said Btown members were mostly talking to students waiting in line for Kilroy’s $2-Tuesdays.

“We are just talking to them before they start their night,” said junior Peter SerVaas, presidential candidate for Btown. “People are already in line, and it is an opportunity to inform them about Btown. If they are convinced by our statement, they can vote.”
SerVaas said while the campaign did bring laptops past the bouncer and onto the patio, the ticket did not bring laptops into the actual building.

“We would not go inside an establishment with laptops serving alcohol,” he said.
Representatives for both tickets said they did not target students who were intoxicated.

“It’s early enough in the night where people aren’t wasted,” Kelley said. “We try to take them right when they get in.”

Kelley said people could not bring an alcoholic beverage into the back room while they were voting.

Andrew Hahn, presidential candidate for Red-Hot, defended the actions.

“A lot of people on our ticket that are 21 and over like to hang out at Kilroy’s, like a lot of IU students do,” Hahn said. “It has been a long campaign. It is a place for us to come and hang out.”

IUSA ticket members said they were not doing anything wrong by being at Kilroy’s; they were simply campaigning.

“We are not buying anyone drinks,” Hahn said. “We have explicitly told them that there was absolutely none of that. We are not targeting people.”

Campaigning and sponsoring ticket-run voting stations, even at a bar, is not a violation of the elections code.

“The idea is to target a wide student demographic,” said senior Elizabeth Retana, IUSA election coordinator. “A large group of students frequent Kirkwood.”

When asked whether getting votes at a bar should be against the elections code, Retana said, “It is a difficult call, a difficult situation.”

Though the practice is not against IUSA Elections Code, others in Indiana have ruled that alcohol and elections don’t mix.

On Election Day, state law requires Hoosier bars stay closed while polls are open.
Senior Dan Sloat, current IUSA vice president, said the IUSA elections are very different than the state and national elections since student government elections take place in the unique environment of a college campus.

Sloat said because many students go to the bars, IUSA candidates campaign there in hopes of connecting to the student body. 

He also said even though the tickets’ actions did not go against the elections code, the tactic was “in poor taste.”