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Originally Posted by stevennevets
also, why did it happen in the first place?
and congrats john! i voted for you, you seem like a great active member of the SRA. keep up the great work!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by callender
Why was it overturned?
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This article from the Sil explains things:
"After the DVD Referendum this past fall, the Elections Committee made the decision to allow candidates to campaign on Facebook. The recent SRA election sparked the first investigation into what is and isn’t appropriate use of Facebook as a campaigning tool.
John McIntyre was one of the 12 candidates for a position on the SRA Science caucus. He explained that, “in the past, the SRA elections have been based on name recognition and I wanted something more, I wanted to see platforms.” McIntyre created a Facebook group for his campaign and looked at others who had done the same, because with a SRA Science caucus of six these are candidates that might be representing McIntyre.
One candidate, Jared Kunar, “made allegations [on his Facebook group page] that the SRA Science caucus failed on the issue of trying to get it so that Science students could book study rooms in the Health Science Library (HSL), as currently on Health Sciences students can … [Kunar] was claiming that if he was elected he would continually push for something like this and fight the University administration. He was representing activist views.”
Kunar was one of the members who had originally brought the issue to the SRA, and McIntyre had investigated the issue himself. He explained that, “we approached Liz Bayley, [the Director and Head of Systems at HSL] and she explained that the Health Sciences students are on a different financial grid, they get their funds from the Faculty of Health Sciences. The faculty feels that their students need that group space more, so while Science students can use the space they just can’t pre-book it. She agreed that Science students need more group space but suggested they contact their library director as there’s nothing that could be done [about the issue of HSL rooms].”
McIntyre said that it didn’t stop there, after speaking with Liz Bayley he responded to Kunar twice to explain what he had learned, and never heard back from Kunar. McIntyre noticed allegations on Kunar’s Facebook group including “you never did anything” and “I never got a response” regarding the HSL issue.
This was brought up in a series of wall posts between McIntyre and Kunar, which included debate on many issues relevant to the SRA elections and focused on the HSL room booking issue. After Kunar deleted all the posts, McIntyre “made a post saying that if his posters are advertizing transparency, yet he was deleting concerns from one of his possible constituents, how do you address that?”
The two candidates also entered in to a debate over McIntyre’s choice to endorse other candidates. Many SRA candidates sent messages to their Facebook groups detailing, which candidates they would be voting for themselves based on the campaigns or based on experience working with that candidate. McIntyre stressed that, “there is nothing against the election bylaws that says you cannot campaign for someone else.” In McIntyre’s endorsement message, he expressed that he felt no other candidate would put in the effort that the endorsed candidates would. This came under serious scrutiny by the Elections Committee. In response to this, McIntyre pointed out that, “If I said that about myself I wouldn’t be in trouble … so why can’t I say the same thing about them if I’m campaigning for them [which is in essence what I'm doing by endorsing them."
After hearing that his posting was coming under scrutiny McIntyre sent an apology to Kunar. He explained that Kunar, "responded saying that he wished we had had the conversation in a more public forum to generate more interest. He seemed like he was fine with it and thought it was actually beneficial."
When the ballots were counted and the decision released, McIntyre discovered that he had been disqualified and his votes were dismissed. Kunar submitted a complaint, which the Elections Committee considered when making their decision to disqualify McIntyre.
At the time of press, the MSU was unable to comment. Kunar’s complaint consisted of the five posts from Kunar's Facebook group wall, which he had not deleted. McIntyre felt this left the Elections Committee without any of the context to what was said. Included in the five posts that Kunar submited was McIntyre's comment questioning Kunar's transparency and expressing concern over Kunar being in a position of representing Science students. It also included an allegation by Kunar that McIntyre was attempting to control the caucus by endorsing other candidates, and McIntyre's response to this.
McIntyre stressed that, "without the context I still don't think it fell within the realm of bad taste, but they didn't give me due process by looking into the context."
McIntyre explained that, "the Elections Committee is claiming that [the posts] were detrimental to his campaign but they didn’t see everything because they didn’t consider it all. John Scheiding, Chief Returning Officer, brought up in the meeting that there’s all this other stuff that will provide more context and they said they don’t need anything more. So they didn’t give me due process.”
McIntyre said that he, “feels like it’s been done very unfairly.” He claims that the Elections Committee had not outlined the fine structure prior to the elections start and although a major fine is typicallyten dollars, they fined McIntyre a 20 and a 30 dollar fine. Also, he said that whenever a candidate is disqualified their votes are to be counted as abstentions, but someone from the Elections Committee informed him that they were disregarded entirely so that McIntyre would not have any way of knowing roughly how many votes he received. During the consideration of his disqualification,
minutes show that SRA members treated him differently because he was a current SRA member. The minutes record comments such as, “he should have known better” and “he made the SRA look bad.” It is also clear from the minutes that many SRA members felt there should have been more information before they made a decision on the case.
In his appeal McIntyre has outlined all these complaints. The appeal period ends Thurs. Mar. 19 and he hopes to expedite the review process. The appeal will first go to the Elections Committee and if they reject the appeal then it moves to the Elections Appeal Board who makes a final ruling. McIntyre explained that, “the frustrating this is … that it probably won’t be resolved by Apr. 5 which is the first SRA meeting … where the VP’s are elected.” Even if the disqualification is overruled and McIntyre had enough votes to win an SRA position he will have lost his vote on the VP’s, and he has already lost the opportunity to run for VP Admin. If the appeal stretches past Apr. 19 he will lose the chance to run for any commissioner position, which is something he is interested in.
McIntyre said, “I’m definitely fighting this … I’m on the SRA to accomplish things and not just as a resume padder so I’m pissed off that this is how it’s going to end. But I have faith that the EAB, once they give it proper consideration will overturn [the disqualification].”
Whatever decision the Elections Appeal Board may make it’s the first time the new bylaw allowing Facebook campaigning will be examined. The decision has the potential to scare away candidates in upcoming elections from real debate. Students should be worried that if debate is stifled they will be prevented from making an informed choice on voting day."
But on a secondary note Congrats John! I actually happened to be Outside the MSU office that day doing my overdue essay+ waiting for my Fyc by Election Result.
At that time I had no idea why there was a person or two sitting since before I was there in a state of extremely distressed anticipation, then I think the officials came out with the results and it was quite clear how badly you wanted to wanted the SRA seat by the pure unadulterated look of joy/relief in your face!
Here's to hoping you represent Sci's with the same enthusiasam!
