William Alligood
With election results set to be released tomorrow at 5 p.m., the Elections Commission convened once again last night to hear campaign violation charges brought against the candidates for student body president, Will Quick and Will Langley.
Commissioners postponed hearing charges that members of the Quick campaign stole and destroyed Langley’s signs and political advertisements around campus pending the appearance of a police report that can provide hard evidence on the matter.
Quick said he was confident regarding his innocence in the case and that all evidence will confirm his side of the story.
“I don’t expect any future proof to be forthcoming,” Quick said. “Those accusations against me and my campaign team are false.”
Langley in turn faced several repeat infractions yesterday, including continued illegal use of mass e-mailing practices.
After consulting with his campaign staff, Langley accepted a warning charge for the violation, commenting that he wished to skip all the formalities and proceed ahead to the election results.
“The reason I took the warning was just to get out of here,” Langley said. “I’m ready to start planning an end of the year block party on Hillsborough Street.”
Quick said the actions of Langley are inexcusable and he should have taken preventive action after he faced similar charges in the first hearing.
“Will Langley should have taken the time to take people who aren’t his acquaintances off the email list,” Quick said. “This demonstrated a blatant disregard for the rules.”
Langley suggested that the whole trial was a ploy by Quick to get in the way of any possible last minute campaigning efforts.
“I’m ready to move on with this election,” Langley said. “I felt like my opponent just wanted me stuck up in a room while he got more votes.”
Elections Commissioner Danielle Seale, a senior in political science and philosophy, explained that the release of election results must be delayed to give enough time for appeals to be filed and any further information to surface.
“I’m anxious to see what the police report has to say to see what will fall under the Elections Commissions jurisdiction and what will go to the Office of Student Conduct,” Seale said.
Seale commented that the attitudes of the other commissioners yesterday lacked the sincerity that she thought they should have displayed.
“I know some of my fellow commissioners were trying to push this through just so they can go home,” Seale said. “It is unethical to go into a judicial hearing with your mind already made up about the sanctions you will issue.”