Archived: Apr 21, 2008

> Student Government News

Several problems arise at polls

Controversy surrounds write-in sheets, media coverage

By Ryan Cardarella

“*That’s not journalism, that’s just a kid with a camera.*”
- IEC Commissioner Dan Bahr

Last week’s Student Association elections resulted in several voting controversies involving write-in sheets for the Achieving Student Action through Progress (ASAP) party, as well as a dispute over whether PantherVision and UWM Post cameras would be allowed to film voters.

Independent Election Commissioner Dan Bahr ruled Friday that students could not bring ASAP write-in sheets into the balloting area, resulting in some frustration for those attempting to vote ASAP.

ASAP, the political entity that was kicked off of the ballot last Wednesday for being assessed over 500 campaigning violation points, distributed the flyers so that students could still vote for their candidates. The sheets featured only the names and schools of ASAP candidates and did not directly reference the party.

“We (ASAP) did our best to try to give the students the information they need to vote, but they aren’t allowing us. There’s nothing about ASAP on the sheets that we are giving students,” said Gavin Jackson, an ASAP candidate running for senate.

Bahr identified the flyers as campaigning materials and confiscated many of the sheets, informing poll workers to tell students that they could not reference them in the balloting area, or they would not receive a ballot. According to a written statement, he also physically took flyers out of some student’s hands.

“(Dan) Bahr ripped my sheet of paper with names out of my hands. After I asked for it back, he crumpled it up and threw it in the garbage,” said student Julie Seaton. “I have never been treated like that before, like a child.”

Several other students submitted statements to the Post stating that they were told they could not vote unless they got rid of the flyers, with another student claiming to have had the sheet physically taken from her by a poll worker. The statements included signatures from several witnesses backing up the claims.

Bahr denies physically taking the sheets from anyone, stating that emotion was running high and that all he did was ask people with the write-in sheets to leave the balloting area.

“I don’t believe that’s accurate. I don’t feel that I was rude to them and if I was, I’m sorry about that,” said Bahr.

The flyers were allowed to be used on Thursday, the first day of election voting.

“I was just getting bombarded yesterday. People were leaving them on tables, they (the sheets) were everywhere,” said Bahr, stating that he had received a large number of complaints about the sheets being campaigning materials. “People can’t bring campaign materials into the polling place,” he added.

The main issue with the sheets involved students leaving them in the balloting area. Students were allowed to bring their own hand-written sheets with candidate names in to vote.

Additionally, members of the UWM Post and PantherVision were asked to leave balloting areas in the Union and Sandburg Halls during the elections, with Bahr ruling that the media coverage in the balloting area was inappropriate and approximated voter intimidation. The campus media counters that they were simply doing their job and were unfairly prevented from covering a legitimate and newsworthy story.

“Never in my time that I’ve gone to vote in a public polling place have cameras been allowed to come in and stand over voters as they try to vote. That’s just ridiculous and its voter intimidation,” said Bahr. He added that he was concerned with the professionalism of the PantherVision staff, stating that they were calling poll workers and Bahr himself corrupt. “That’s not journalism, that’s just a kid with a camera,” said Bahr.

PantherVision members strongly deny any accusations of unprofessional conduct, and feel that their journalistic rights were infringed upon.

“Myself, nor anyone associated with PantherVision used any such terminology and made no such insinuations,” said PantherVision reporter Jesse Manser. “We remained objective.”

Manser detailed being asked to leave Sandburg Halls while shooting video, with escorts walking with PantherVision members to ensure they were leaving, and that they took all of their equipment with them.

“We thought we had a constitutional right as journalists to go in there,” said Manser. “We didn’t plan to harass anyone or affect the voting in any way.”

Fellow PantherVision reporter Amanda Mattefs was also escorted out of Sandburg Halls by housing security and felt as though she was wrongfully prevented from doing her job.

“I’m an objective journalist and we had every right to be there,” said Mattefs.

Another dispute involved a member of the Student Association executive branch working the polls in the Union. Nicole Morales, the Director of Inclusion for the SA, worked at the Union poll during the elections, a possible violation of Article V, Section 2 of the IEC Commissioner bylaws.

The bylaw states that poll workers shall be members of the SA not currently holding or seeking office, and cannot be affiliated with any student political party running in the election. Although she is unaffiliated with any student party, she is still a member of SA.

Bahr stated that Morales holds an appointed position and that the bylaw applies to elected officials, but conceded her presence may constitute a violation.

“If there was a violation, that’s an oversight by me,” said Bahr.

The Students United for Change party won the elections, with several appeals filed by the ASAP party still pending.

> Comments

Informed Observer on Apr 21, 2008 at 03:00 AM:

So the IEC and at least one poll worker physically took sheets of paper out of the grasp of one or more students who literally owned the materials in question (from the moment they were given it by ASAP). That constitutes robbery, and I'm surprised the university police didn't immediately make an arrest. I encourage Julie Seaton and anyone else who was the victim of a forceful removal of property to file a police report.

Fails to Mention on Apr 21, 2008 at 07:04 AM:

Ryan, honestly, I thought you were better than this. Nowhere in the whole article does it mention that it is against the RULES to campaign on election days. One party broke the RULES repeatedly, which cost them a position on the ballot. That does not mean that they can just campaign during the elections. If SUFC had been able to campaign during the elections, their votes would probably have doubled, if not trippled! RULES are in place for a REASON and ASAP just always seems to think they are ABOVE the rules.

what? on Apr 21, 2008 at 09:11 AM:

Hey Fails... I guess you forgot that ASAP was removed from that ballot... they were above the rules. HELLO! I think your fantasy of SUFC doubling turnout is wrong. A better argument would have been ASAP would have stormed the election had they been on the ticket. They almost beat SUFC on a write in campaign. Amazing! In fact they would have won had it not been for Dan Bahr's biased and disgraceful actions as IEC. So Dan, it wasn't just some kid with a camera, he was trying to expose your corrupt actions. It would be better to say you were just a kid with a set of bylaws pretending to be fair, but just trying to keep your friends in office. UWM should be very proud.

Re: What? on Apr 21, 2008 at 09:25 AM:

How can you say that? There was only one party campaigning during the days of the election. Unlike you and I, many students DO NOT read the Post and are not informed on campus issues. So, ASAP was the ONLY party that was able to talk to students during the voting days. That swayed TONS of votes.

Daniel V. Bahr on Apr 21, 2008 at 10:24 AM:

Yes,

They were CORRECTLY removed. I will be holding referendum elections in two weeks for (UC) and (SA) constitutional revisions. If they (panther vision) come into the polling zone, they will be removed again. Standing over the table where people are tying to cast ballots and filming them for over 1/2 hour is not reasonable. If they were only going to do it for 30 seconds that would be one thing, but they stood there for a half hour. Panther vision's conduct was VERY unprofessional. I absolutely stand by my decision to toss them. I will not be doing any future interviews with panther vision. I prefer to only discuss election matters with legitimate news sources.

Dan

LMAO on Apr 21, 2008 at 11:48 AM:

ASAP should endorse vanishing cream, they are going to be in the audience at the first few Senate meetings but gradually phase off.

Bahr Who are you kidding? on Apr 21, 2008 at 12:10 PM:

Bahr, Many would disagree ASAP was correctly removed. You had no right to remove flyers from people's hands as they came to vote. It sounds like what you did was illegal and in violation of students first amendment rights. Students need to contact the ACLU now or press charges. Since ASAP was no longer on the ballot, they could hand out flyers on the day of the election. Isn't it funny how the trumped up charges against ASAP occurred on Monday and it took you until 24-hours before the election to tell ASAP they were off the ballot. Did you purposely leave ASAP no time to regroup so had no chance to inform students to write in? You're a joke!

Kyle Duerstein on Apr 21, 2008 at 12:14 PM:

Bahr would've given the decision orally at the end of the hearing if ASAP and the administration didn't "express concern" causing Bahr to need to consult with a panel of people before issuing the decision and point assessment. If the hippies wanted the answer Monday night, they should've left the process alone instead of changing it halfway through the game. Their objections drew it our longer. They dug their own grave in that regard.

Re: Kyle Duerstein on Apr 21, 2008 at 12:23 PM:

You are a class act! You throw out the word "hippies" like an insult to anyone that diagrees with your repressive little organization. You are suppose to represent ALL students of UWM and you call people names. Why shouldn't ASAP fight allegations in which there was no evidence they were guilty. You don't represent UWM students because the majority of students didn't even turn out to vote for SUFC in support. SAD!!

Amaithi Lennox on Apr 21, 2008 at 12:36 PM:

I am trying to organize a protest against the new (old hound dog) regime of the SA, if you are interested in participating or at least spreading the word, please write me on facebook, the name is obviously the one to look for, I would be happy to forward information. However I will stress now that all violence, verbal or otherwise, would not be accepted, in case you thought we were going to storm the gates and ask for the president's head. I hope to hear from you, we need as much support as we can get.

Kyle Duerstein on Apr 21, 2008 at 12:39 PM:

Too bad a greater majority of students voted for SUFC than did for ASAP. Woops.

RE: Kyle on Apr 21, 2008 at 01:06 PM:

Are you surprised? After you buddy, the 'independent' election commissioner, got ASAP kicked off the ballot did you expect SUFC not to win? Especially when the 'SUFC' election commissioner wouldn't let people take in sheets to write in ASAP candidates. When you and your buddies in power rig the election, it kind of hard for the opposition party to get a fair shake. At least you got what you want, another year in power to cut funding for resource centers and student services. Start with your leadership refusing their university salaries.

hahaha on Apr 21, 2008 at 01:07 PM:

yeah, you bet!

boobies on Apr 21, 2008 at 01:25 PM:

"You are a class act! You throw out the word "hippies" like an insult to anyone that diagrees with your repressive little organization. You are suppose to represent ALL students of UWM and you call people names. Why shouldn't ASAP fight allegations in which there was no evidence they were guilty. You don't represent UWM students because the majority of students didn't even turn out to vote for SUFC in support. SAD!!"

dude yeah.. like how SUFC got pinned with making SMOORE into boobies.

awesome.

points all around!!

Kyle Shut Up!!! on Apr 21, 2008 at 02:19 PM:

Kyle, you need to leave this campus. Your radio show is a joke. Being in the top ten of bloggers, results in nothing. Also, Tyler Kristopeit is the worst campaign manager ever. His number one strategy was to force ASAP off the ballot. If that's his strategy well, he needs to go back to campaign school or at least attend one. Tyler Kristopeit needs to read about a one party system.

Fuck Dan Bahr on Apr 21, 2008 at 05:00 PM:

What an asshole.

Fuck u Dan Bahr on Apr 21, 2008 at 05:48 PM:

Eat dick asshole. I hope you burn in hell. Good luck in the real world cockbag.

yabbadabbaDON"T on Apr 21, 2008 at 06:11 PM:

I suppose that's what you get when your sole campaign chalk design equates you with the namesake of a gooey dessert. SMOOREGASM '08!

mcdan on Apr 21, 2008 at 07:30 PM:

dan bahr, just wait. 10 more years and you'll be a 40 year old virgin. oh wait! you fucked this election.

UWM Student on Apr 21, 2008 at 08:28 PM:

http://www.uwm.edu/StudentOrg/sa/executive/documents/bylaws/iec/current/bylaws_iec.pdf

Article X

nonsense on Apr 22, 2008 at 12:30 AM:

the post has allowed this nonsense to go on for far to long.

"Fuck u Dan Bahr on Apr 21, 2008 at 05:48 PM:

Eat dick asshole. I hope you burn in hell. Good luck in the real world cockbag."

Very inappropriate. I wouldn't be surprised if that was posted by someone in ASAP seeing as they did get kicked off the ballot for doing such things. You claim sufc utters such words of nonsense, yet comments from opposing views threaten, degrade, and demoralize sufc. if you want to threaten someone, i dare you to do it in person. until you are man, or women, enough to do it in the real world, you are nothing but an average person sitting behind the safety of your computer. none of you will survive in the real world. its a lot tougher when you are actually held accountable for what you say.

Re: Kyle Shut Up on Apr 22, 2008 at 08:16 AM:

"Kyle, you need to leave this campus. Your radio show is a joke. Being in the top ten of bloggers, results in nothing. Also, Tyler Kristopeit is the worst campaign manager ever. His number one strategy was to force ASAP off the ballot. If that's his strategy well, he needs to go back to campaign school or at least attend one. Tyler Kristopeit needs to read about a one party system. "

Hey smart one did you even read the chronology of complaints on the post's page?? I bet you didn't! Tyler only filed one or two complaints, in comparison with AJ's 791034709274598239048124820589745907345907

This is college. read.

Kyle Duerstein on Apr 22, 2008 at 11:38 AM:

If you are really so jealous about the prestige and influence of my blog and radio show, why don't you start your own and try to compete...that is, if you're not too busy berating and being jealous. It wouldn't be influencial if it didn't cause change. Causing change is more than I can say for you, however. It's hard to change things when you're too busy behaving like a two-year-old. Call me when you're out of diapers and stop crying yourself to sleep. Maybe when you're ready to live in the real world, we can take off life's training wheels (the safety of annonymous comments) and teach you about life.

Pomposity? on Apr 22, 2008 at 02:40 PM:

"If you are really so jealous about the prestige and influence of my blog and radio show," WOW! Someone surely thinks highly of themselves.

What Do you Want SA to do? on Apr 22, 2008 at 03:39 PM:

Let's not talk about the past. All of you with all these "ideas" about what SA SHOULD NOT be doing. Tell me what you want SA to do and what campaigns you want SA to work on. Let's not talk about the past, let's talk about the future. No complaining, no pointing fingers...let's talk about REAL campaigns for REAL students :)

re: pomposity on Apr 22, 2008 at 04:23 PM:

Duerstein isn't really over-conceited...he just plays one on his radio show. He's actually a decent, level-headed guy most of the time. You should actually try to work with him on something. I'm sure you'd find him more than approachable, and easy to work with.

Chad Johnson on Apr 22, 2008 at 08:09 PM:

This is my first semester at UWM and I have to say I have never been so disgusted by student politics. Coming from someone who has been the Vice President of a student government and been the commissioner of two elections this is the most ridiculous election I have witnessed.All of my interactions with SUFC have been mediocre and though they seem to have a decent platform...they seem like they don't actually follow it all the time. I will tell you this much...when I was VP of my student government if we would have taken a trip like that we would have been hung when it was exposed how irresponsibly money was managed while we were there...HAS ANYONE EVER SEEN THE MILLENNIUM HILTON??? I HAVE. ALSO I cant believe the justification was was partially based on training for elections...Obviously the 12 grand wasn't all that worth it. Neither party really seemed to have had a thought out campaign or meaningful action plan. Now that I am UWM student PAYING the segregated fees that SA controls I will be at every SA meeting I can make it too.

BY THE WAY DID YOU KNOW THAT UWM STUDENTS PAY THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS EVERY ACADEMIC YEAR TO BE A PART OF THE UNITED COUNCIL OF UW STUDENTS?...BUT BECAUSE SUFC DOESN'T SEEM TO LIKE UC THEY ONLY HAVE HAD TWO PEOPLE PARTICIPATE IN A TOTAL OF 2 OF THE UC GENERAL ASSEMBLIES THIS YEAR...JOE OHLER, AND ME(BECAUSE I WENT TO THEM) TO A TOTAL OF 4 ASSEMBLIES THIS YEAR...ONE WAS EVEN AT UWM AND THERE WAS ONLY JOE THERE FOR UWM. UWM CAN SEND 9 DELEGATES TO UC, SO OUT OF 36 POSSIBLE DELEGATES THEY HAD TWO 2 TOTAL ACTUALLY FULLY PARTISIPATE ...BECAUSE SUFC DOESN'T WANT TO BE IN UC THEY APPEAR TO HAVE BOYCOTTED IT..THUS MORE OR LESS ALLOWING THOUSANDS OF STUDENT DOLLARS TO BE WASTED! THATS FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY. UC COULD USE SOME CHANGE AND THAT IS WHERE I CAN AGREE WITH SUFC, BUT HOW CAN YOU CHANGE SOMETHING IF YOU DON'T ATTEND.

I AM RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT OF UNITED COUNCIL AT THE ASSEMBLY THIS WEEKEND THAT WILL BE HELD AT UW STEVENS POINT...THIS MEANS WE CAN HAVE 8 MORE PEOPLE COME, I AM CURRENTLY GOING TO BE PAYING FOR MY OWN WAY FOR TRAVEL AND A PLACE TO STAY AT A DISCOUNTED PRICE...IF THERE IS ANYONE WHO WOULD LIKE TO GO AND HELP REPRESENT UWM (WE ARE PAYING FOR IT) AND IMPROVE UC I HAVE ROOM FOR 4 PEOPLE IN MY CAR AND YOU CAN STAY WITH ME FOR FREE (SINCE I'M ALREADY PAYING FOR IT). ANYONE WILLING TO DRIVE IN CASE MORE THAN 4 PEOPLE WANT TO COME THAT WOULD BE AMAZING. LETTING ME KNOW ASAP IS IMPORTANT.

FINALLY I HOPE ALL THIS ACTIVISM RESULTS IN US ALL BE INVOLVED...EVEN IF IT MEANS GOING TO SENATE MEETINGS TO SHOW WE CARE! LETS NOT HAVE THIS JUST BE TEMPORARY INTEREST BECAUSE OF THE ELECTION. SA HAS THE ABILITY TO DO A LOT AND CONTROLS A LOT OF MONEY!

Chad Johnson on Apr 22, 2008 at 08:18 PM:

My email address is johns699@uwm.edu and my phone number is 414-507-6955. Please feel free to email, call or facebook me(Chad Allen Johnson).

SUFC on Apr 23, 2008 at 08:14 AM:

We love penis in our mouths and to rig elections by sucking cock!!! GO us.

Senator Ohler on Apr 23, 2008 at 11:26 AM:

Thanks for the mention, Chad. The thing is, the SGA Vice President or his/her designee needs to approve every GA delegate from that school, or else United Council will not recognize the delegate. Reference the UC Corporate Bylaws IV.2, “Delegates shall be selected as each voting campus sees fit,” and UC General Assembly Bylaws Section 5.1A, “Each voting member [campus] shall designate a delegation leader for each session to represent its delegates for the purposes of certification and voting,” as well as UWM Student Association Executive Bylaws Article II.2e, “The Vice President shall be the liaison between the Student Association and student governmental bodies external to UWM and shall serve as the delegation leader.” Therefore, any UWM students interested in actually voting in this weekend’s UC General Assembly would have to obtain approval from the SA Vice President. You could still go irrespective, but you wouldn’t be able to vote.

World Over on Apr 24, 2008 at 09:03 AM:

Joe Ohler (SUFC) - 563 All is lost. Joe Ohler (SUFC) - 563 All is lost. Joe Ohler (SUFC) - 563 All is lost. Joe Ohler (SUFC) - 563 All is lost. Joe Ohler (SUFC) - 563 All is lost.

re: world over on Apr 25, 2008 at 08:52 AM:

rofl.

Cindy Pawelski on Apr 27, 2008 at 10:07 AM:

What a total crock that Voters are not allowed to bring a list of whom they are voting for to the Poll - I do this is State/federal elections ALL THE TIME... I am fed up with the SUFC controlled SA trying to SILENCE ANY of THEIR CRITICS, and stifle FREE ELections on Campus!

Why doesn't Tyler Draheim (SUFC Member)as SPEAKER of the Senate - turn over the list of the (SUFC, obviously) members of Student Government who voted for the "Sedition Act" in Feb 2008? http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/article-935-hi--as-a-uwm-student-i-want-to-know-the-same.html

Also - I agree with Chad Allen Johnson, the SUFC (from their actions demonstrated) are hypocrites in the front that they present to the students during elections (TWO Freakin' Weeks) compared to what they DO for students...

THIS ELECTION IS A SHAM