Meissner and Meacham campaign cleared of wrongdoing

Student Court found the Gaby Meissner and Hunter Meacham student body president ticket not guilty of campaigning during a campaign ban at a hearing on Monday.

The 24-hour campaign ban was instituted from 12 a.m to 11:59 p.m. on February 25 as a result of a level-one violation of ASG election bylaws. The violation was issued because Meissner sent a Snapchat picture of her campaign buttons to two students.

During a ban, any staff member of a campaign is prohibited from "open campaigning," such as posting online about the campaign or election, passing out promotional materials such as buttons or flyers or speaking to student organizations, according to the Student Body President Elections Packet.

Late February 25, Meissner's roommate Taylor Liber posted an Instagram story in support of the Meissner campaign. After receiving evidence of the post two days later, the Election Committee issued an additional level-one violation to the ticket for campaigning during a ban. The ticket appealed the violation on the grounds that Liber was not a campaign staff member.

The Election Packet defines a campaign staff member as "any person engaging in open campaigning on behalf of and with a clear association to a candidate."

The court decided that the use of the phrase "on behalf of" here refers only to an act that an individual was requested by a campaign to perform or an act that the campaign would have performed themselves.

The court found no evidence that the Meissner campaign requested that Liber post the story or that campaign members would have posted the story themselves during the ban, clearing the campaign of the violation.

glynnee@miamioh.edu