Btown ticket to take office April 15
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU Student Association Supreme Court has certified that the Btown ticket will be the next administration to take office.
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____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU Student Association Supreme Court has certified that the Btown ticket will be the next administration to take office.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After an intense campaign season filled with students running around in red and orange T-shirts, the results are in: The Btown ticket is the unofficial winner of this year’s IU Student Association election.IUSA Elections Coordinator Elizabeth Retana said the IUSA Supreme Court should certify the election promptly.After two days of voting, Btown received 3,991 votes, while 3,365 votes were cast for Red-Hot. ONE University, which announced it would cease campaigning Monday, came in third place with 128 votes.Btown ticket executives said their realistic platform propelled them to victory. Their platform is based on five Bs: bikes, books, break, basketball and Btown Express.“I think we connected with the student body because we had realistic platform issues rather than large price tags attached to it,” said junior Peter SerVaas, IUSA president-elect. “We looked for feasible initiatives that additionally met specific student needs.”SerVaas said particular individuals will be overseeing certain platform issues. He added that the basketball gym cameras will be a “great and easy implementation process.”Btown ticket executives said their ticket’s workers were a dedicated bunch.“We had a strong base of support based on a strong platform,” said Vice President-elect Jack McCarthy, a junior. “The people we had working on our campaign made our job really easy.”Representatives from the three tickets running in the IUSA election said there was no bad blood between them, but rather a line of open communication.“There was mutual respect between all executives,” SerVaas said.McCarthy added, “We had an open discourse throughout the campaign and election day.”Second-year law student Ben Blair, presidential candidate for ONE University, said all the tickets wanted to avoid the same type of controversy of last year’s election, when one of the candidates from the Kirkwood ticket invaded current IUSA president Luke Fields’ computer and forwarded campaign e-mails to members of their ticket.“All the tickets basically tried to avoid each other,” Blair said. “They wanted to avoid anything like last year from happening. Tickets avoided being at the same place at the same time.”Junior Andrew Hahn, presidential candidate for the Red-Hot ticket, said although Red-Hot ticket members put their “heart and souls into the campaign to make the student voice heard” to form an administration that had strong potential, he believes Btown could make a great administration as well.“They built a strong campaign organization,” Hahn said. “They definitely have the potential to make a great administration. I encourage them to work hard.”Blair said he was happy Btown won the election.“Btown winning is proof that students wanted to see something different for student government, and they will prove to be good student leaders on campus,” Blair said.As for the elections code, all the tickets did a great job at following the rules, Retana said.“I think that with all the potential to go wrong, all went well,” she said.In a Thursday public meeting, IUSA elections commissioners, along with Btown executives, met to discuss a discrepancy with financial statements. Section 603: Financial Statements of the elections code was found to be ambiguous by both the Btown and ONE University tickets.The election code states, “A financial statement is defined as an itemized list of all campaign expenditures, including receipts and appropriate document for each campaign expenditure listed. A signed financial disclosure affidavit must accompany all financial statements. For this section, an affidavit shall consist of an itemized list of all contributions and their respective signature(s), date of contribution, and candidate or ticket affiliation.”The elections commission decided to fine ONE University with 5 percent of the ticket’s total expenditures and Btown with 2.5 percent of its own. ONE University was fined because of improper submission of expenditures and contributions, while Btown was fined for improperly submitting their contributions.Btown appealed the election commission’s decision to the IUSA Supreme Court because executives believed the situation was a misunderstanding. The Supreme Court sent the case back to the elections commission, and after Thursday’s hearing, the commission has 24 hours to issue a decision.The Btown ticket has no chance of being disqualified, Retana said.ONE University will still have to pay its fine as the ticket did not appeal the elections commission’s decision.Btown executives said they are committed to making the elections code even clearer during their term in office and believe the decision to have the elections code reviewed by Congress every year was a necessary adjustment made by the current administration.Although the elections code might be altered, Retana said it will never be completely clear.“I think that no matter how the elections code is written there will always be loopholes and questions,” Retana said.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>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.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Two of the IU Student Association polling stations for the elections have been changed.The polling stations at the intersection of 10th Street and Fee Lane and the corner of Ballantine Hall, are no longer sites.IUSA election coordinator Elizabeth Retana said these two polling stations have been dropped because of questionable weather.The other polling stations are located at Read Center, Wright Quad, Foster Quad, the lobby of the Kelley School of Business, Student Recreational Sports Center and the Indiana Memorial Union literature desk.Students can also vote for the IUSA tickets on http://www.indiana.edu/~iusa/ through 10 p.m. Wednesday.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>ONE University ticket leaders no longer want to be recognized as an active ticket in the IU Student Association elections, executives said Monday, even though their candidacy will remain on election ballots and votes cast will count. Ticket candidates have chosen to cease campaigning because the combination of personalities has not been working well for several weeks, said second-year law student Ben Blair, presidential candidate for ONE University. Ticket organizers announced Monday night they will endorse the Btown ticket instead. ONE University candidates cannot officially withdraw from the election because of election code stipulations. “Candidates wishing to withdraw their names from the ballot must request a withdrawal, in writing, from the Elections Commission by 5:00 p.m. , seven (7) calendar days before the IUSA Election begins,” according to the Code. “Although ONE University has not been able to withdraw from the elections per elections code they will cease their campaign efforts,” said IUSA elections coordinator Elizabeth Retana. Since the ticket did not officially withdraw from the election, their name will remain on ballots and their votes will still be counted, Retana said. A campaign e-mail sent Monday afternoon appears to be a primary cause for the ticket’s withdrawal, ONE University executives said. Executives of the ONE University ticket said many were unaware the e-mail was even being sent. And while the e-mail was sent from Presidential candidate Ben Blair’s account, Blair said he knew nothing about the e-mail. “The e-mail in question to gather support from the student body in itself was not the problem,” Blair said. “The way the e-mail was sent out caused us concern. It was sent out in violation of section 702 of the elections code in that it did not put the e-mail addresses of the recipients in the blind carbon copy line,” Blair said.The executives said that if the e-mail had not been sent, they would not have “dropped out.”“I knew about it moment I received it,” Blair said. “I sent an e-mail back instructing the sender to stop sending those e-mails.”Section 702 of the elections code states that “any e-mail sent to multiple voters soliciting votes that does not have all e-mail addresses in the blind carbon copy line shall constitute a violation of this code.”The ticket turned themselves in before getting caught, Retana said. She said that by no means would the ticket automatically get disqualified. IUSA president Luke Fields said if a ticket files a complaint or if the election commission files a complaint, the ticket will be charged of a violation and they will receive a hearing. If the ticket is unhappy with the decision, they can appeal and go to the IUSA Supreme Court.However, junior Jeff Fraser, chief of staff for the ONE University ticket, said the e-mail was part of the campaign and that the executives knew about it. Fraser would not explain why he thought Blair did not have knowledge of the message. “I don’t know what to say,” Fraser said. The ticket executives decided to take responsibility for the e-mail in question, because this occurred under the ticket’s name.“How we decided to run (the) campaign was to hold onto high values. Running a clean campaign, even though it was not our fault, it was still under our name,” junior Samantha Israel, vice president of Congress for ONE. “We accept responsibility for these actions. We decided to run a clean campaign from beginning to end.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The ONE University ticket has announced its intent to withdraw from the IU Student Association election.Junior Saad Saghir, vice presidential candidate from the ONE University ticket, said the ONE University ticket has been having "internal problems" from which the executives' team decided they could not recover.Their decision was announced to IUSA election commissioner senior Liz Retana at about 8 p.m. today. "Btown is the most competent and dedicated ticket," Saghir said. "There is no doubt in my mind that Btown will do wonders for this organization."Second-year law student Ben Blair, presidential candidate for ONE University, said the ticket's stand-out quality was that all of their platform issues were derived from the IU student body as opposed to IU faculty and administrators.The ONE University ticket was focused on student rights, technology and facilities, community service, sustainability, transparency and accountability.Students can vote from 10 a.m. Tuesday to 10 p.m. Wednesday on the IUSA Web site or at official IUSA polling stations.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU Student Association tickets create platforms promising things they will try to accomplish throughout the year. Last year, the current IUSA administration listed five things. Below is a listing of Big Red’s five platform initiatives and how well the administration met each goal.Weekend Health Center HoursCurrently, health center weekend hours have not been put into place because the administration decided it would be unwise to raise student fees in the current economic environment. Weekday health center hours cost less than weekend hours. “We were hesitant to propose any large fee increases this year,” IUSA President Luke Fields said. “We know that the burdens of coming into a college environment are only increasing.” The Big Red administration has been working with health center workers to see if minimizing hours on certain weekdays and creating partial weekend hours would be feasible. Tax-Free TextbooksA bill that supports a tax-free holiday went into the Indiana State Senate but failed to pass. State Sen. Vi Simpson wrote a bill that went to the state senate. The bill went to the committee but died because the state needed money to pay its deficit, Fields said. The bill received support from IU-Bloomington, its satellite campuses and other Indiana colleges supporting the initiative. IUSA also met with the president of the Indiana Retail Commission. “For this year, the work is finished,” Fields said. “I think we did everything we could to the best of our ability so that we can hand off the baton to next year’s group in April.” Student SectionIUSA did not acquire a traditional student section. Members of the administration said this is because of low student turnout at basketball games. But the administration said they made positive strides. “Despite the decrease in student tickets, we were able to maintain that no student seats were lost in Assembly Hall – despite the fact that basketball could have made additional money from alumni,” said current Vice President Dan Sloat. None of the 7,500 student seats were lost, Fields said. The student prices will remain low for basketball tickets, Fields said. Through their time in office, Big Red was able to develop a good relationship with the new Director of Athletics Fred Glass and basketball coach Tom Crean to inform them that students are interested in this initiative, Fields said. Big Red will be meeting with Glass sometime soon to open the lines of communication for a student section.Meal Point RolloverAll meal points remaining at the end of the school year will now roll over to the following semester. For those students who purchased a meal plan for the next school year, leftover meal points can be used for the following two semesters. This was a big victory for the Big Red administration, Fields said.Fall BreakIUSA did not create a fall break this year. Fields said the administration has worked with the campus calendar committee to try to make adjustments with the schedule. Fields said it is a complicated process that both the faculty and board of trustees must approve. Congress has advocated that students get the entire week off at Thanksgiving break and begin school earlier. The current IUSA administration has gotten the resolution together and is working with each dean to see if this new schedule is plausible, Fields said.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In light of last year’s IU Student Association election, the current Big Red administration is trying to ensure a fair and scandal-free election occurs Tuesday and Wednesday.During last year’s IUSA election, it was discovered that a congressional candidate of the Kirkwood ticket, Adam Pozza, accessed current IUSA President Luke Fields’ computer and forwarded e-mails regarding Big Red’s campaign to members of the Kirkwood ticket.The winning Kirkwood ticket was disqualified from the election, and the Big Red ticket was sworn into office.One of Big Red’s main goals this year was to legitimize IUSA after an election process marred by corruption.“Coming out of last year’s election, the question on campus was not what is IUSA going to do, but should we even have IUSA next year,” Fields said. “I think we’ve had a fabulous year at a time where we had to have a fabulous year. If we had a bad year this year, I think those whispers last year – that we should dissolve IUSA – would have turned into shouts.”The judicial branch and elections commission of IUSA handle any mishaps and controversies in the election process if there are any, Fields said.The appointment process for the elections commission, compared to past IUSA elections, has become more formalized, said current IUSA Vice President Dan Sloat.The tradition of appointing the outgoing Union Board president head elections commissioner continues. The rest of the four members of the election commission were selected by virtue of their office, and all work on some type of judicial board capacity on campus.“They have been recognized from other organizations for their impartiality and reasoning,” Sloat said. “In years past, the rest of the appointments have been very arbitrary and have been done by the sitting president.”Fields said the presidents of the various IUSA tickets need to be held accountable for their own actions as well as those of the members of their tickets.“I tried to communicate to the various tickets’ presidents that we need to have a good, clean election,” Fields said. “It is imperative to the legitimacy of IUSA.”To better suit the election process, the elections code was rewritten to ensure that a clear set of rules were set in place.One new elections code rule requires a reevaluation of the code by IUSA Congress every year.Another change from last year’s election involves voting locations. Students can now vote online through the IUSA Web site in addition to in-person IUSA polling stations.The workers at the polling stations will not be affiliated with any of the tickets running.Sloat said the polling stations were set up because a ticket running its own voting station is considered a fine line of solicitation. Therefore, the government got involved so that stations could be run impartially.No campaigning can take place within 50 feet of the polling sites and computer labs, according to the new elections code.“The polling stations give everyone an opportunity to feel comfortable voting and feel as if they could vote for whoever they want,” Fields said. “And they do not give anyone a particular advantage in those high traffic areas. They are a good way to be a little more equitable in the elections and to make sure all students have an opportunity, as much as we could ensure it, to feel comfortable with who they are voting for and to not feel pressured as to who they are voting for.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A proposal to better represent international, domestic minority and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students failed to pass at an IU Student Association Congress meeting last week. The measure, which would have incorporated three delegate seats to members of the underrepresented campus groups, fell two votes short of passing.The amendment was proposed in an effort to directly and more successfully represent IU’s diverse community, said the amendment’s proponents.Many disagreements arose during the meeting. In the initial proposal, the minority leaders would have been chosen by the Commission on Multicultural Understanding, but members of Congress argued that the IU student body needed to vote on these three delegates.Many supporters and creators of the amendment believed this rationale was insufficient.Junior Alexandra Chtchedrina, international student and co-writer of the VOICE Report, said many Congress members are appointed, not elected, to represent the students. She said because of this, the amendment was not that different from what IUSA is currently doing.According to the second article of the IUSA constitution, members of congress are elected annually to serve a one-year term. The members must also be members of IUSA and live in the district they will represent. IUSA Vice President for Congress Andrew Hahn said because some seats are vacated during the year, congressional appointments do happen.But Hahn said the delegate seats in the proposed amendment could never be elected by students, which was problematic. The proposed amendment evolved throughout the meeting.Some Congress members were concerned that administrators involved in the Commission on Multicultural Understanding would meddle in the IUSA government, said junior Solomon Hursey, an amendment supporter. Congress members changed the amendment so that various minority organizations would get to choose their outstanding members and send their recommendations to Congress. They would ultimately choose the delegate they believed would foster greater student involvement.The amendment, however, needed a two-thirds majority to pass, and failed with 24 for the amendment and 13 opposed. Another problem Congress found with the amendment proposal was that only one student would have the responsibility of representing a distinct population of the IU community.Michael Coleman, IUSA Congress Teter representative and co-sponsor of the bill, said, “We can’t expect (62) Congress seats to satisfy the will of over 40,000 students.”The bill proposers said they recognize that great progress has been taken to make positive strides in diversity on the IU campus.“Diversity Day indicates that the University is trying to go into the right direction,” said sophomore Jordan Jacobs, author of the amendment. “There has been good progress, but there is still work to be done.”But many individuals involved with the amendment said they believed that without these three delegate seats, their presence is not being represented in IUSA.“Overall, IU Diversity Day was a great success,” said second-year law student Ben Blair, official sponsor of the bill. “However, IU’s student government has not leaped into the 21st century.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It’s the economy, stupid.Members of three rival tickets sparred Thursday night at the IU Student Association Candidate Debate, covering a variety of topics crucial to the future of the University. But perhaps none was more important than how the potential governors would deal with a slumbering financial system.Nearly 50 students attended for the opportunity to hear what each of the three IUSA tickets – Red-Hot, Btown and ONE University – had to say about the issues.A central question during the debate was about the financial decisions each ticket would have to make if they were the new IUSA administration during this difficult economic time.Chancellor Ken Gros Louis asked what financial cuts students would make if they had to make such choices.Red-Hot would collaborate with other members of the IUSA administration and Congress to figure out with the situation is, said junior Andrew Hahn, presidential candidate of the Red-Hot ticket.Hahn also said the Red-Hot ticket believes that premier schools should maintain their funds and that frozen faculty salaries would be an undesirable product.Hahn said that ticket hopes to find a way of “balancing issues.”Members of the Btown ticket said they believe some options in dealing with the financial situation should be avoided.“No one plans across-the-board cuts,” said junior Jacob Turner, ticket supporter and stand-in for Btown treasurer. “That would be far too easy.”Members of the ticket said they also believe capping faculty salaries is not the best option and that some units, such as the Jacobs School of Music and Kelley School of Business, have the funds to “stand on their own,” Turner said.Members of the ONE University ticket said they believe in the “free market solution,” said junior Jeff Fraser, chief-of-staff for ONE University.Ticket members said they do not wish to decrease faculties’ salaries, and they said they do not wish to cut the funds of top schools such as the Jacobs, Kelley and the School of Journalism.In many aspects, the tickets have similar perspectives in how the campus should be run, but some tickets distinctly vary.Jack McCarthy, junior and vice presidential candidate of the Btown ticket, and Hahn agreed to develop relationships with IU administrators prior to entering office and have spoken with administrators in the past to assist in developing their campaigns.But ONE University representatives disagreed that administrators are a large priority for IUSA, saying they had not met with any administrators.“We’re not concerned with introductions,” said second-year law student Ben Blair, presidential candidate of the ONE University ticket. “We want to represent the students right now.”Members of each ticket expressed which platform was their highest priority.Hahn said that for Red-Hot, it was “Your IU” – a pledge the ticket has made to use blogs, open office hours and other means of communication to better interact with the student body. Hahn also said he wants to apply for Indiana State Transport funds to help save student transportation fees.Junior Peter SerVaas, presidential candidate for the Btown ticket, said textbooks were the main priority. SerVaas said IUSA should work with professors to turn in book lists earlier so students have a better chance of selling them back to the bookstores.Samantha Israel, junior and vice presidential candidate for Congress for ONE University, said members of her ticket hope to increase the community service effort within IUSA because “IUSA has been lacking in that area.” “IUSA supports the mission of IU students accomplishing service awareness to benefit the community,” Israel said.Throughout the debate, the candidates were tested of their University knowledge.“The candidates did very well,” Gros Louis said. “They showed that they were knowledgeable of the campus. They dodged questions, but I expected that.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>All IU Student Association candidates will answer hard-hitting questions at today’s Candidate Debate from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Kelley School of Business in room 109.Students will have the opportunity to see how the executives of the Btown, Red-Hot and ONE University tickets deal with “think-on-your-toes” situations, said senior Dan Sloat, current IUSA vice president.“The debate will test how well-prepared candidates are,” Sloat said. “Students get to see to what extent a ticket is prepared and educated.” The debate allows the students to see all three tickets together and to decide who best meets their needs, Sloat said.University Chancellor Ken Gros Louis will moderate the debate and ask a diverse array of questions, said senior Liz Retana, IUSA election commissioner.Students can hold the candidates accountable for what they say, Sloat said.IU students can develop their own thoughts, become informed about each ticket and ultimately decide who to vote for in the upcoming election, he said.“Each student can respectively make a fair and unbiased decision,” Retana said.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Hoosier Compass ticket nearly swept the Residence Halls Association elections, claiming three of four executive positions after Tuesday’s re-election in Ashton Center.President Jessica Schul, Vice President of Internal Affairs Michael A. Coleman and Vice President of Programming Katie Lambert – all of Hoosier Compass – won their respective races.But one member of the Chuck Norris ticket, Mary Kathryn Frederich, won the race for vice president of student affairs, defeating Sheldon Raisor of the Hoosier Compass ticket by 24 votes.“I’m proud of myself, but I wish my whole administration had gotten into office,” Frederich said. “I’m happy one of us is in office.”Frederich will be representing a different standpoint because she was on the opposing ticket.“I hope everyone can move past this and work together,” Frederich said.The re-election results can still be contested within 48 hours.The Chuck Norris ticket contested the outcome of the first election, which took place March 3. The re-election Tuesday in Ashton Center – the only residence hall to re-do elections – yielded 127 new votes and altered Frederich’s race.Schul said the Hoosier Compass ticket is a close group friends that has become a family.“I’m happy that most of us got re-elected, but it is extremely upsetting for us that Sheldon did not obtain his position,” Schul said. “He was someone we were looking forward to working with.”Schul said each executive helps determine the fate of the administration.“We are all going to work in a professional manner and do the very best we can,” Schul said.Junior Aaron Collins, presidential candidate for the Chuck Norris ticket, said he is happy with the results.“I think the results shined a light on the proper voice that had not been heard in the previous election,” Collins said. “Had there been other re-elections at the dorms recommended by the election commissioners, the results could have been different.”Initially, the RHA elections commission ruled that re-elections should take place at Ashton, Briscoe Quad, Willkie Quad and Read Center. But the RHA Judicial Board overturned the commission’s decision and ruled that only Ashton should have new elections because RHA ballots were not available there for most of the original election.Collins said he is glad Frederich will be a member of the new RHA administration.“She is a great asset for RHA to hold on to,” Collins said.Because the Ashton votes determined the results of the RHA election, both the Hoosier Compass and Chuck Norris tickets were out campaigning throughout the day to make the name of their ticket known to residents.Candidates from both tickets were greeting and introducing themselves to potential Ashton voters.All campaigning had to occur 50 feet from the polling place to stay within the elections code.Candidates are allowed to go around and campaign, but Schul said even if candidates are 75 feet away, it has the same effect on potential voters.Members of the Chuck Norris ticket were handing out candy and giving out free coffee.Senior Ben Siebert, Chuck Norris vice president for internal affairs candidate, said the candy helped with dialogue and gave candidates the opportunity to explain in a quick conversation what the Chuck Norris ticket wants to accomplish.Collins said the coffee bar was set up to get Ashton residents to vote in the election.“Everyone campaigns differently,” Schul said. “We campaign with a Web site, and they campaign with coffee and candy.”Sophomore Jess Meyer, RHA election commissioner, said the increased advertising and student awareness of the judicial board’s decision brought in Ashton voters to the polling station.The Ashton ballot was the same style ballot as the one used in the initial RHA elections, including the straight ticket option, Meyer said.Although the polling station had an influx voters at various times, the campaigning outside was consistent.Meyer said it was a hot race, and candidates were doing a lot to get out the vote.The campaigning at Ashton was more intense than the initial RHA election as a whole, senior Eric Gibson, current RHA president and election commissioner, said.“It was absolutely positive,” Gibson said. “It is unfortunate that this level of competition was not taking place closer to the first race. There would have been a greater likelihood that the problems would not have occurred.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>With a lengthy Residence Halls Association election and a close race between the Hoosier Compass and Chuck Norris ticket, today’s Ashton Center re-election will be the determining factor of the RHA election.The RHA executive board could be filled by the Hoosier Compass, the Chuck Norris ticket or a mixed administration.In this election, the ballots will list the candidates from each ticket, but they will not have a straight ticket option for either the Hoosier Compass ticket or the Chuck Norris ticket.A mix-match is possible for the RHA executive board if student participation is large enough, said senior Erica Wiley, RHA elections commissioner.The election will be held from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. today at a table near the center desk in Ashton Center, located in the main building.The re-election will decide who will be the RHA executives, and they will represent the residents of campus residential housing.On March 11, the RHA judicial board decided the RHA executive ballots were not available to Ashton Center residents for six of the nine hours of the elections, which warranted a re-election.“People of Ashton are being given the opportunity to have their voice heard to a full extent in order to rectify something wrong that happened, which shouldn’t be taken in vain,” said junior Aaron Collins, presidential candidate for the Chuck Norris ticket.For this re-election, all the poll workers are affiliated with RHA, but the workers are not associated with either ticket, Wiley said.The Ashton results from the previous RHA elections on March 3 will be supplemented with the new results accumulated today.“The Ashton re-election will help us know that the votes were accurately counted and represented,” said senior Jessica Schul, presidential candidate for the Hoosier Compass ticket.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After a Residence Halls Association election filled with accusations, violations and a judicial hearing, the end of the process is in sight but remains unfinished.The RHA judicial board met Wednesday night and decided to reinstate sophomore Katherine Lambert as candidate for Hoosier Compass vice president for programming. They also overturned the RHA election commissioners’ decisions to reinstate elections in Read Center, Willkie Quad and Briscoe Quad. However, the RHA judicial board decided that since RHA executive ballots were not available to Ashton Center residents for six of the nine hours of the elections, re-elections will occur from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 24. Senior Eric Gibson, current RHA president, said the RHA judicial board found Lambert in violation of some of the election codes but did not believe there was enough merit to disqualify her.Gibson also said that for three of the four residence halls, the violations were not serious enough to merit a re-election.“I am thrilled that the judicial board went through with our repeal and heard the whole side of the story,” Lambert said. “I am thrilled to be reinstated and so glad that it’s all over.”According to a document obtained by the Indiana Daily Student, “The 2008-2009 Election Commission of the Residence Halls Association: Chuck Norris vs. Hoosier Compass” states that “Lambert was seen by Elections Commissioner, Eric Gibson, sitting next to the polling station talking with the poll worker” in Read Center. Lambert said she was talking with a friend from work and did not introduce herself to anyone or sway votes in any way. Lambert said Gibson saw her and asked if she had been campaigning. When Lambert said she had not, he continued on his way. When she later heard of the complaints filed against her, it was stated that her physical presence was seen as campaigning. The document states “Lambert was seen by Elections Commissioners, Erica Wiley and Jess Meyer, escorting Read elections commissioner, Christian Porod, to 801 N. Jordan Ave. with the Read Center elections ballot box.” Lambert said as she was leaving the library, she saw Porod and walked with him to 801 N. Jordan Ave. She said she noticed Porod holding the ballot box but didn’t realize walking into the Residential Programs and Service building would leave a bad impression on the election commissioners.“I had no access to the ballot box and did not sabotage information,” Lambert said. “I was walking on a public street with students around.”Lambert said “the punishment choice was more severe than what the ticket had expected.” But she also said “the judicial board reinsured (her) reputation to the campus.” Junior Aaron Collins, Chuck Norris presidential candidate, said he was glad the RHA judicial board noted the Hoosier Compass ticket had been in violation of the elections code, but he “preferred if something more was done.”Collins still believes the Chuck Norris ticket has a fighting chance of winning the election.“Votes are close in individual races,” Collins said. “It’s not over until it’s over. We will endure and hold on to what we believe in. We will put our all into it.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Hoosier Compass ticket violated seven election codes during the Residence Halls Association elections March 3, according to an RHA Elections Commission document. The violations resulted in a re-election and the disqualification of a member of one of the tickets. A document obtained Tuesday by the Indiana Daily Student states the Elections Commission agreed with seven of 10 complaints filed by the Chuck Norris ticket against Hoosier Compass.The document also stated the commission found “no merit” in two complaints filed by Hoosier Compass, which related to postings on a blog kept by junior Aaron Collins, presidential candidate for the Chuck Norris ticket. The Elections Commission disqualified sophomore Katherine Lambert, the Hoosier Compass’ candidate for vice president of programming, after it determined she violated an elections code that states “no publicly visible campaigning or campaign materials are within fifty (50) feet of the polling place.”The Hoosier Compass ticket has contested her disqualification, and an RHA Judicial Board hearing will take place later today to determine the outcome.“We believe that the Elections Commission’s decision concerning the pending disqualification of Katherine Lambert was determined using incomplete and insufficient evidence,” the Hoosier Compass ticket said in a statement Tuesday night. “We trust the RHA Judicial Board will render an unbiased and accurate decision on Wednesday.”Elections commissioner and current RHA President Eric Gibson said Tuesday he was confident the judicial board’s decision would be the last word. “Tomorrow will be the end of this awful situation,” he said.According to the “Chuck Norris vs. Hoosier Compass” document, Gibson saw Lambert sitting next to the Read polling station talking with a poll worker.The same document states that Lambert was seen by election commissioners senior Erica Wiley and sophomore Jess Meyer “escorting the ballot box” with the Read elections commissioner, Christian Porod, to the Residential Programs and Services Building at 801 N. Jordan Ave.The document also states that Lambert was hanging up Hoosier Compass posters, in violation of Read’s posting policy.With all of this evidence, the commission determined Lambert was in violation of the elections code that states, “All campaigning for RHA elections shall take place in an orderly, responsible manner and in accordance with all University, Community Council and other applicable regulations.”Also, the election commissioners decided that this evidence warranted a new election at Read, according to the document.Elections commissioners declined to comment about Lambert until after RHA’s judicial board hearing today.In a separate complaint to the commission, members of the Hoosier Compass ticket said they felt “threatened” by a blog post authored by Collins. In an entry dated Feb. 5, Collins wrote, “I’m pretty worried about the election, actually. If I lose, shit’s going to get real.”Collins said the Hoosier Compass ticket misinterpreted the post. “I was using common slang to explain how my situation would worsen to a point that I would prefer not to be in,” Collins said Tuesday.Collins said that without receiving this position his financial situation will worsen to the point where he would have to take a break from school for at least a semester to deal with issues. RHA presidents receive free housing. “The wording was questionable and not something that needed to be written about RHA, and it was searchable,” said senior Jessica Schul, presidential candidate for the Hoosier Compass ticket. “If we wrote something about Chuck Norris, there might have been a different outcome.” Collins said that he is not only running for president for the financial aspect but also because he cares about RHA.“It’s upsetting that the election crossed into my personal life,” Collins said.The election commissioners disagreed with the ticket but told Collins to “choose his words more carefully in the future,” to put his blog on a private setting for the remainder of the election and to no longer put his personal views of the elections on his blog.The document also sheds light on problems at Ashton Center, which, along with Read, Briscoe Quad and Willkie Quad, will have new elections Thursday. In addition to a lack of advertising, the document stated ballots were not available in Ashton for six of nine hours the polls were open, resulting in an outcome that “does not accurately reflect the true voice of the Ashton residents.”Gibson said Ashton’s lack of publicity was unintended.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Residence Hall Association’s judicial board will decide Wednesday night if one of the Hoosier Compass ticket members will be disqualified from the elections.In addition, the Residence Hall Association will hold a reelection Thursday in Briscoe Quad, Read Center, Willkie Quad and Ashton Center in an attempt to make the voting process more fair, said senior Eric Gibson, current RHA president.The Chuck Norris ticket contested the results of the March 3 RHA elections by providing a document listing the violations.After an election commissioners’ meeting Sunday night, officials decided that a redo of the elections would take place in the respective residence halls in which violations were occurred because of campaigning from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday.In Read Center and Willkie Quad, ticket candidates of the Hoosier Compass party were too close to the polling stations, while in Read Center and Briscoe Quad posters were also hung too close to the polling stations.The elections will be reconducted in Ashton Center because the election commissioners said they felt the election was not publicized properly, Gibson said. “We don’t think that we have done anything wrong to have somebody get disqualified,” said senior Jessica Schul, presidential candidate for Hoosier Compass. “We are disappointed because this is not the outcome we wanted. We are hopeful and we trust the decision of the RHA judicial board.”After judicial board officials decide Wednesday, the name of the individual associated with the Hoosier Compass ticket will be released, Gibson said. RHA officials have previously declined to release that information. The name of the individual accused of the violation might not be disqualified from the Hoosier Compass ticket. If the name is released and the decision is overturned then stress can be created, said Sarah Nagy, staff adviser for RHA. The decision to redo the elections came after research and examination from the RHA election commissioners, Gibson said. Commissioners saw posters hung up in the residence halls as well as pictures that some members of the Chuck Norris ticket provided as evidence of the accused violations.Junior and presidential candidate for the Chuck Norris ticket Aaron Collins said he is pleased with the decision, because now the election results can be justified and can run smoothly. Each of the votes from the first election will be erased from the four residence halls so afterward there will be new totals, Gibson said.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Residence Halls Association’s election commissioners have decided to redo elections in Ashton Center, Briscoe Quad, Willkie Quad and Read Center, after considering complaints from the Chuck Norris ticket regarding election code violations. The commissioners disqualified a member of the Hoosier Compass ticket, though officials declined to release the individual’s name Sunday.“It was a very, very long process,” said senior Eric Gibson, current RHA president. “We read through complaints thoroughly and conducted our own research. We spoke with candidates of both sides and workers at center desks. Based on the election code, we feel we made the best decision.”Because the Indiana Daily Student was informed of the changes before the tickets were notified, the IDS was not able to contact either ticket for comment.According to the RHA elections code, no campaigning can occur within 50 feet of the polling stations. The Chuck Norris ticket claimed this code was violated, Gibson said.The code states campaigning can consist of posters, fliers and ticket members being present, Gibson said.The Chuck Norris ticket claimed the Hoosier Compass’ posters were within 50 feet of the polling stations in Briscoe and Read, Gibson said.In Read and Willkie, candidates of the Hoosier Compass ticket were within 50 feet of the polling stations, Gibson said.But at Willkie, junior Sheldon Raisor, candidate for vice president of student affairs for the Hoosier Compass ticket, committed an infraction, Gibson said.Raisor works at the Willkie center desk and was working during the elections – putting him too close to a polling location. After Raisor realized he was in violation of the elections code, he went to an election commissioner to rectify the situation, Gibson said.Ashton was not mentioned as a violation, according to the Chuck Norris ticket’s paper work, but it was “an election commission decision that the elections had not been properly publicized,” Gibson said.Gibson declined to release the name of the Hoosier Compass member who was disqualified.“While clear mistakes were made, this candidate has been extremely valuable to this organization, and the last thing I want to do is smear their name through the public eye,” Gibson said.Though Gibson said it was a hard decision, the election commission felt there were too many complaints against the candidate.The Hoosier Compass has 48 hours to appeal to the RHA judicial board.The new election will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday in the named residence halls.“I don’t think this hurts us at all,” Gibson said. “This is the first competitive election for RHA. I think that speaks in terms of success for RHA.”Gibson added that RHA executives and candidates do not want this situation to be reminiscent of last year’s IU Student Association elections.“We want this to be handled fairly and adequately and not have it dragging on forever like IUSA,” Gibson said.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The REAL ticket is dropping out of the IU Student Association elections, ticket organizers said, citing a lack of financial means and an inability to connect with the student body as primary reasons.Ticket members decided late last week they were unprepared to be successful in the elections and will officially announce their decision today, said junior Sam Miller, the ticket’s presidential candidate.“We got started really late to campaign,” Miller said. “Other tickets were further underway.”Ticket executives needed money and sponsors to compete, Miller said, and did not realize how great of a financial burden the ticket would take on during the campaign.Miller and Nick Pavilonis, REAL ticket vice presidential candidate, will support the Red-Hot ticket, but the REAL ticket as a whole is split on which ticket it will support, Miller said.Two of the REAL ticket executives met with some of their Red-Hot ticket counterparts, including presidential candidate Andrew Hahn, vice presidential candidate Mary Kelley and candidate for treasurer Pat Rodgers, and said they had similar thoughts on the big issues at hand, Pavilonis said.Red-Hot ticket members liked the REAL ticket’s first platform idea – the long-term solution committee – and wanted to implement it into their platform, Miller and Pavilonis said.“We are excited to have more people in the campaign committee in Red-Hot to help us better represent all IU students,” Hahn said. Hahn said Miller and Pavilonis will help strengthen the Red-Hot leadership and add to the entire Red-Hot team.The race started with five tickets, but the Hoosier ticket and the REAL ticket have both dropped out, leaving three tickets in the race: the Red-Hot ticket, the ONE University ticket and the Btown ticket.Senior Dan Sloat, IUSA vice president, said because the IUSA tickets are vying for a similar voting base, the race is bound to get competitive.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Chuck Norris ticket has contested the Residential Hall Association election, filing a series of violations against the winning Hoosier Compass ticket.The RHA election commissioners will be meeting today to make a decision as to what their next step will be concerning the controversial election results.The Chuck Norris ticket claims that the elections code’s campaign practices were violated in certain residence halls: Ashton Center, Read Center, Willikie Quad and Briscoe Quad, said senior Eric Gibson, current RHA president.According to the RHA elections code, no campaigning can occur within 50 feet of the polling stations and that is the basis of the complaints, Gibson said.Campaigning can consist of posters, fliers and campaigning within 50 feet of the polling station, Gibson said.The Chuck Norris ticket wants the election commission to review potential violations to make sure the elections were run fairly, Gibson said.“I chose to contest the elections because the integrity of the organization is in jeopardy,” said junior Aaron Collins, presidential candidate for The Chuck Norris Ticket. “I did not do it to win the elections personally.”Hoosier Compass asserts that they have not violated any of the elections codes.“I feel that we were very professional and mindful of the elections code,” said senior Jessica Schul, presidential candidate for Hoosier Compass. “I don’t feel like our ticket has done anything wrong. I trust the elections commissioners and their judgment.”The elections commissioners will research the situation and decide how to settle the matter appropriately.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Hoosier Compass will serve as the governing body for the Residence Halls Association, having won the election Tuesday with 491 total votes. The Chuck Norris ticket lost the race with 417 votes.Senior Eric Gibson, the current RHA president, said the elections are still pending for 48 hours so any contesting issues can be filed.The RHA executives create programs in the 11 residence halls to establish a welcoming environment in the residence centers as well as to help new students transition to IU.The Central neighborhood brought in the most votes while voter turnout was fairly equal between the Northwest and Southeast neighborhood residence halls.The vote tallies were comparable to last year, Gibson said.“Everything went smoothly,” Gibson said. “There were no issues at all.”The Hoosier Compass ticket said it believes hard work and campaigning skyrocketed its successful win in the election.“I think that we were very effective in actively representing our ticket in the residence halls,” senior Jessica Schul, president-elect of the Hoosier Compass ticket, said. “Our Web site was professional. ...We tried everything to get ourselves out there.”Junior Sean Apfelbaum, former candidate on the Chuck Norris ticket for vice president of programming, said, “It was a good race.”“It’ll be interesting to see how everything plays out next year,” Apfelbaum said.IU students pay a $12 student activity fee per semester that goes directly to RHA funding for various programs. Despite this, many residents do not even know what RHA is and what it does for IU.Freshman Kayla Douglas, a Read Center resident who helped out with the elections, said she thinks people in the student government seem to be the only ones voting, and from what she saw, not many others did.Other students felt like voting in the RHA elections was not worth their time because they had never heard of the organization prior to being near the voting table.“I’m too busy, and I don’t care what RHA is,” said freshman Hunter Harper, McNutt Quad resident. “Voting takes too much time, and my vote won’t matter.”Some IU students took the time to vote in the RHA elections.“I got an e-mail from my RA and didn’t know of the elections before two days ago,” sophomore Ryan Mabry, another McNutt Quad resident, said. “I picked a random ticket, straight Hoosier Compass.”The names of the RHA tickets, The Chuck Norris Ticket and Hoosier Compass, appealed to many voters. However, several students did not know who the RHA executive candidates were and were ignorant of the tickets’ platforms.“I voted half-and-half for each ticket,” freshman and Wright Quad resident Eduardo Sanchez said. “I don’t know what RHA is because of a lack of campaigning and knowledge. I don’t know about platforms. It was more about the names – Chuck Norris was a great marketing promotion.”