The Worrell-Olvera and McCarthy-Creber ASG presidential and vice presidential campaigns each received a violation from ASG's election committee on March 12. The violations are classified as "level one," resulting in a 24-hour ban on campaigning and a $50 budget reduction.
The Worrell-Olvera campaign was punished for "the campaign's inappropriate social media use in reference to one or more candidates," according to an ASG press release by Sen. Cole Hankins. The McCarthy-Creber campaign was charged with distributing campaign materials in King Library, another violation in the ASG Elections Handbook.
The Worrell campaign's violation was voted on by the election committee 5-4. The student court, on an appeal from the Worrell ticket, voted down the sanctions 5-4. The McCarthy campaign violation vote was unanimous.
Overlooked by the elections committee are two signage violations: the Callaghan-Elfreich ticket, and, again, the McCarthy-Creber campaign. The elections handbook specifies that all signs must show the date and location (miamioh.edu/hub) of the election. A Callaghan-Elfreich sign outside FSB fails to show both the date or website; a McCarthy-Creber sign in Brick Street Bar neglects the dates.
These offenses are categorized level one according to the ASG Elections Handbook, the same classification as violations charged against Worrell-Olvera and McCarthy-Creber. However, the elections committee has purposefully left the illicit signs uninvestigated.
"This is technically a Level 1 violation," reads the election committee's weekly report. "But the committee chose on Sunday that all signs posted previously would not violate this rule as long as new signs follow the rule." The report did not offer an explanation for this decision.
Fetick and other election committee members declined to comment.
Update: Tuesday, March 14 at 2:25 p.m.
Details regarding the Worrell-Olvera campaign's appeal have become public. On March 11, Worrell recorded a snapchat video of a friend burning a McCarthy-Creber campaign t-shirt. The video was sent to ten friends. A screenshot of the video was sent to the McCarthy-Creber campaign. McCarthy approached Worrell about the incident, but nothing further happened.
On March 13, the Worrell-Olvera campaign brought the McCarthy-Creber campaign's library violation to the elections committee. Sanctions were placed, and less than an hour later, the McCarthy-Creber campaign brought the Snapchat screenshot to the attention of the Election Committee. While the Election Committee voted to sanction the campaign 5-4, the Student Court struck down the sanctions 5-4. Their reasoning: a Snapchat direct message is not public media, and, therefore, Worrell did not commit an Election Committee violation.
"The Court was unanimous in that Worrell inappropriately used electronic media," reads the Student Court's statement. "However, the Court held that Snapchat direct messages are not public. Based on this second element, we reverse the Committee's decision."
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