“I am hoping that the election (this year) will be a lot smoother.”
--Samantha Prahl, Student Association chief of staff

In a change from previous years, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Independent Election Commissioner set the dates of the Student Association elections for late April.

For the past two years, elections have been held during the first two weeks of April. The 2006 elections are set for April 26 and 27.

Students seeking a senatorial slot within the SA must submit a nomination packet by Friday, March 31, including a candidate registration form and a nomination signature sheet.

Nominees for the presidential and vice presidential seats must collect 450 valid student signatures to be considered a legitimate candidate. Nominees for senator-at-large must collect 50 signatures and senators from specific schools or colleges within the university must collect 25 signatures, with the exception of the senatorial candidate from the School of Library and Information Sciences, who must collect only eight.

New Independent Election Commissioner

Cassandra Gauthier was approved as the SA Independent Election Commissioner at the Senate meeting on Feb. 26.

“I am glad to be in place and eager for the election,” said Gauthier in an e-mail.

Gauthier’s appointment comes nearly a year after the previous commissioner, Levi Sosa, left.

“We wanted to focus on student issues during that time instead of focusing on the election,” said SA Chief of Staff Samantha Prahl. “We wanted to keep helping students as much as we could.”

According to the Independent Election Commission (IEC) bylaws, the duties of the IEC include the distribution of nomination papers, party registration forms, campaign violation forms and campaign violation response forms. The IEC is also responsible for printing ballots and distributing brochures for each race.

“It’s nice to have an independent body that people can go to get information,” said Prahl. “I am hoping that the election (this year) will be a lot smoother.”

Violations marred last year’s election

Last year, the two main parties vying for SA positions were the United Student Voice (USV) and the Milwaukee Party (MKE).

The entire slate of USV presidential and senatorial candidates were disqualified after the party received more than 2,000 points in campaign violations.

IEC rules state that candidates who receive more than 125 campaign violation points or political parties that receive more than 500 campaign violation points are disqualified from the elections.

Sosa said he stopped counting violations after USV received more than 2,000 points.

Because the USV Party was disqualified, MKE swept the elections for the third straight year, winning the presidential ticket and 26 Senate seats. In total, 24 USV senatorial candidates and a USV presidential ticket candidate were disqualified.

Jacob Wu was elected president and Lizabeth Michalak vice president with 883 votes.

Complaint detailed violations

Stacy Van Kleef, then MKE chair and a member who ran — and won — an at-large Senate seat, filed the complaints with the IEC on behalf of her party.

The USV received violations for campaigning in the declared neutral zones on campus and using SA or university equipment, resources or materials for campaign purposes.

USV flyers and other promotional materials were handed out in Sandburg Residence Hall, which is considered a neutral zone because students live there and it is too easy for political parties to target those voters. One of the three polling places on campus is also located in Sandburg Hall.

Students campaigning — regardless of whether the students were part of the party or not — for the USV party wore USV T-shirts, which is also a neutral zone infraction.

There was also a sandwich board placed in the middle of a Sandburg Hall hallway promoting USV.

The other major infraction USV committed was by a School of Education senatorial candidate who allegedly used his PantherMail account to send promotional material to two of the large Greek student organizations on campus.

USV awarded elections

The USV Party appealed Sosa’s assessment to the University Student Court. USV presidential candidate Russ Rueden served as the court’s chief justice but resigned himself to a regular justice position during the election.

The court ruled in favor of USV in mid-April. The court ordered the vote totals, which gave USV the election, be released and certified.

But MKE joined with Sosa and appealed the court’s decision to then Dean of Students James Hill, who found that the court had violated its own bylaws multiple times.

Hill awarded the election to MKE presidential candidate Wu and his party for the third straight year. The student court, led by Rueden’s effort, appealed Hill’s decision and argued through shared governance laws that students had the right to select student representatives without administrative involvement.

Hill conceded and allowed the court decision to stand, granting USV victory for the SA elections.

Rueden and his party assumed office June 1.

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