Election policies
As candidates campaign to sway student voters, the Student Government Association Election Commission has the duty of ensuring the campaigns stay within the rules of the SGA's Election Code.
Chris Chorn, a member of the SGA Election Commission and a senior business major from Lubbock, said his role as an elections commissioner is important in ensuring the integrity of the election.
“It’s an important position because we need someone who’s going to follow the rules,” Chorn said, “who isn’t going to bend for a friend who’s running and who’s going to stick to the code through and through to insure that no one has any preferential treatment.”
According to the SGA Election Code, the Election Commision consists of five students chosen from the student body by the President of the Student Government Association and is responsible for supervising the election and ensuring the integrity of the election.
Chorn said the most common violations he has seen involve candidates failing to submit a financial disclosure form. Every Friday after an election, he said, candidates running for office are required to turn in a financial disclosure form
“That’s the biggest one that we see…people just completely forgot, and they’ll have an excuse like ‘I wrote it on the wrong Friday on my calendar.’” he said.
According to the election code, each candidate's financial records are required to list identifying information of contributors and amounts of each contribution and expenditure, with contributions and expenditures of non-monetary assets listed and valued at their fair market value.
Candidates for Execuitve Office may spend a maximum of $250 on their campaigns, while candidates for Student Senate are allowed to spend $100, according to the election code.
Another aspect of SGA elections regulated by the Election Commission is the use of posters and other campaing-related items distributed on and off campus, Chorn said.
According the the election code, candidates are allowed to display posters no larger than 11 by 17 inches, with a maximum of 75 for Executive Offier campaigns, 50 for At-Large campaigns, and 25 for senatorial campaigns. However, there is no limitation on the number of printed handbills, no larger than 8 1/2 by 11 inches, that can be displayed.
Chorn said the commission already has had one violation of poster rules this semester, with one candidate's posters being put up on other posters.
“Usually it’s people have other people putting up posters for them who aren’t familiar with the election code, and so that’s when that gets kind of hairy,” he said.
Mason Moses, SGA President and a senior communications studies major, said some of the more popular campaigning tactics include picketing, speaking in classes, with approval of professors, speaking at student organizations meetings as well as using social networking utilities such as Facebook.
According to the election code, while candidates are not allowed to campaign in the University Library, their are conditions in which they can speak to classes or student groups.
“It’s legal to go to different places to campaign as long as you set up a meeting time,” Chorn said. “In class, it’s usually frowned upon, but if you do get the professor’s permission, then it’s in accordance with the code.”
Along with overseeing the process of campaigning, Chorn said the commission also monitors the voting process for problems and fraud, though he believes the SGA's online e-raider voting process is secure and efficient.
“It’d be pretty tough to crack (the voting system,)” he said. "We’ve had security concerns in the past, and never has anything ever turned up. It’s all a very safe system.
"You have to go through your e-raider name and password, and it’s really hard to get somebody else’s password just because of the strict limitation that e-raider sets.”
According to the election code, the Election Commission is responsible for certifying the fairness of each campaign with its election process and results in a report to the Student Senate via the Rules and Administration Committee no later thatn five school days after the conclusion of all electorlal procedures in any election.