After a resolution changing the election code passed at the March 8th IU Student Association Congress meeting, the three tickets running for IUSA election each have strong opinions about the change.
The change to the code defined the term ticket and added “legal entities operating as a business or nonprofit” cannot run in an IUSA election.
Prior to the congressional meeting, all resolutions being considered were sent out to congressional members.
After all resolutions were emailed, additional information regarding the election code resolution was sent out per request of Jack Langston, vice president of Congress for Accelerate, a ticket running for election.
The response described why congress members should not vote for this bill, claiming the term “legal entity” is not formally defined in the Indiana or Federal Code or in IUSA governing documents.
The response goes on to say the term “legal entity” can refer to any group of people that collects money to give out or reinvest, and are considered partnerships operating as businesses.
This means all IUSA tickets running for election are considered legal entities, according to a response, and if the bill passed, all tickets would be eliminated.
“The Election Commission wishes to discriminate against certain campaigns through last minute subversive efforts,” the response read.
To prove this, the response included a link to an email chain between the Election Commission and Accelerate’s Langston.
In the email, Langston states that although tickets traditionally are not legal entities, Accelerate made sure their ticket was an entity, because no part of the Election Code prohibited this before the resolution passed.
Langston said Accelerate has created nondisclosure and noncompete contracts.
These agreements prevent students from joining a ticket and gaining campaign information and then leaving the ticket to share that information with another ticket.
If students violate these contracts with malicious intent, Langston said Accelerate will not hesitate to file a temporary restraining order or lawsuit against that student.
In response to this, the Election Commission said these contracts can be helpful, but they can also discourage students from expressing his or her rights to political association and participation.
The Election Commission asked Accelerate to provide proof their ticket is a registered legal entity.
In response, Langston said in an email there is no section of the Election Code requiring such sharing of campaign information. He also said the commission has taken a biased look at Accelerate’s campaign.
The issue of legal entities is important to Accelerate’s team because having nondisclosure or noncompete agreements with students prevents espionage and sabotage, Accelerate President Connor Brashear said.
Brashear said his initial concern was the proposed resolution would undermine each ticket’s ability to have a system that adequately protects the time tickets have dedicated to their campaign so far.
Because of this, Brashear said his campaign’s opposition to the bill was focused on slowing the process so there could be more discussion and understanding of the full effect of the resolution.
During the debate at the Congress meeting two weeks ago, RISE president Naomi Kellogg said she made sure to focus on her duty as parliamentarian rather than a ticket’s president.
As parliamentarian, Kellogg helped meditate the debate where the resolution was passed.
“We wanted to make sure we were following all the rules and having a fair debate regardless of the tension behind it,” Kellogg said.
Kellogg said she was most excited about having so many passionate students coming together and sharing their opinions on an important topic.
“People are just defensive on the things they love,” Kellogg said. “When people come at you for something you’re passionate about, you get defensive.”
REAL president Sara Zaheer said she was surprised so many people were making such a big deal over a straightforward piece of legislation.
“This is a student government election,” Zaheer said. “There’s no reason a nonprofit or a business should be involved.”
Although there was a question of ticket elimination, election chairman Adam Kehoe said the intent was never to disqualify any tickets.
After the resolution passed, Brashear said no ticket, including Accelerate, has registered as a legal entity. Therefore, no ticket will be disqualified.
“It is being viewed as a preventative measure to keep such filing from taking place,” Brashear said.
After hearing what the commissioners said at the meeting, Brashear said he is confident the bill will serve its intended purpose of keeping a fair election.
Among all the opinions at the debate, Kellogg said the Election Commission did an outstanding job explaining why this bill was necessary right now.
“The Election Commission showed that they are going to be very fair and thorough and not going to be pushed around by legal jargon,” Kellogg said. “They are here to make this election as fair as possible.”
