On Monday, March 2, the Student Government Board of Elections issued 25 double warnings for campaign violations committed by Student Senate candidates who are members of the Your State 2020 Instagram slate. Once three warnings have been received, a candidate can be disqualified, pending a hearing.
On Friday, Feb. 28, Poole College of Management Sen. Thomas Walsh, a second-year studying business administration and member of the Brohaugh-Foote student body president and vice president campaign team, filed petitions against 29 students running campaigns. Of the respondents, a majority were publicly listed as members of the Your State 2020 slate on its Instagram page. The other two were presidential and vice presidential candidates Carlie Higgins, a third-year transfer student in political science and communication, and Powell Braddock, a first-year in the college of engineering.
Walsh alleged the members had broken the campaign team limit rule, which states that a campaign team may consist of no more than 15 members prior to the official campaign start date. In addition, publicizing a campaign to anyone outside the team before the start date constitutes campaigning and therefore results in a violation. The hearings occurred on Sunday, March 1.
All respondents had 24 hours to issue a statement to the Board of Elections before their hearings. A majority of respondents submitted the exact same statement. It reads, “This defense seeks to exonerate myself by explaining the malicious motives of the accuser,” and proceeds to detail past instances of Walsh portraying Greek life in a negative light. Higgins and Braddock submitted a different statement, but Walsh withdrew his petition against Higgins and Braddock before the hearing.
On Sunday, 27 members of Your State 2020 were represented by just two students: Malek Abedrabouh, a third-year studying nuclear engineering and Senate candidate for the College of Engineering, and Pranay Golla, a third-year studying business administration who was not listed on the public roster or a Senate candidate. After deliberations, the results of the hearings were released Monday, March 2.
Jacob Schmiedl, a first-year studying engineering, and Brady Dillingham, a third-year studying fisheries and wildlife conservation, were each issued a warning because, according to the board, their statements did not indicate collaboration and made no attempts to deceive the board. Candace Bowden, a first-year studying criminology, was not issued a warning because the board deemed that evidence provided in her favor was sufficient to dismiss the case. The remaining 25 respondents were each issued double warnings; the board determined that “nothing in the statement presented by the respondent was relevant to the case except for the last two bullet points,” which read:
- I was not a part of discussions relating to the campaign or platform of myself or any other candidates
- The plaintiff’s obvious conflict of interest largely delegitimizes any accusations made
The first point was determined by the board to be untrue, and this constituted a deliberate attempt at deceiving the board and was therefore considered a more egregious violation.
The following candidates were issued double warnings:
- Malek Abedrabouh, College of Engineering candidate
- Jack Best, Poole College of Management candidate
- Jacob Best, Department of Academic and Student Affairs candidate
- William Bolton, College of Engineering candidate
- Alex Carruth, College of Engineering candidate
- Andrew Doyle, Department of Academic and Student Affairs candidate
- Nathan Ellis, College of Engineering candidate
- Jack Erickson, College of Natural Resources candidate
- Abby Finan, College of Engineering candidate
- Katie Freije, College of Education candidate
- Charlie Gantt, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences candidate
- Pablo Garza, College of Design candidate
- Jack Halasz, College of Engineering candidate
- Tilley Anne Hanvey, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences candidate
- Cristian Hui, College of Engineering candidate
- Matthew Jenkins, Poole College of Management candidate
- Carson Kraycik, Wilson College of Textiles candidate
- John Laney, College of Natural Resources candidate
- Benjamin Luther, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences candidate
- Grayson Moffitt, College of Natural Resources candidate
- Colby Roal, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences candidate
- Matt Rouse, College of Engineering candidate
- Drew Smith, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences candidate
- Graham West, Poole College of Management candidate
- Grant Miller, Poole College of Management candidate
The board also issued a recommendation that all respondents remove their names from the Your State 2020 Instagram page within 24 hours or be issued another warning. Approximately one hour after the hearing results were made public, all posts with candidate names were removed from the Instagram page.
No candidate for student Senate endorsed by the Your State 2020 Instagram account could be reached for comment by time of publication. The owner of the account was also not able to be reached for comment.
Boz Kaloyanov contributed to reporting for this article.
