Ignorance no excuse for misleading, illegal ads
By Matt Weathers
When Marwa Kilani and I filed a Judicial Board case last week
against the Students First slate for what we perceived to be lying
to voters and delegitimizing the endorsement process, we did not
believe the violations were severe enough to warrant invalidating
elections.
Our main concern surrounded the fact that voters rely on
campaign literature and endorsement slips to make informed
decisions. When candidates give out information that could mislead
voters, a truly democratic election can not take place. Given some
new evidence Monday evening, the J-Board agreed that violations
occurred and that last Thursday’s election results should
stand.
Undergraduate students association president-elect York Chang
and his repeated denial that Students First candidates did nothing
wrong is amusing. As far back as fall quarter, Chang knew that
non-endorsing groups may not endorse and that according to the
Elections Code, such advertisements were illegal. Council minutes
reveal that this issue was clarified in the fall.
Every candidate is responsible for reading the Elections Code.
Ignorance is never an excuse. And in our view, this is not the only
time that this group of students has abused the electoral process.
In the special election for facilities earlier this year, Jioni
Palmer paid for an advertisement that illegally exceeded his
expense account.
Some candidates also pretend not to understand the significance
of endorsements, saying "It’s just a word." Each candidate sits
through up to six hours of "endorsement" hearings, often passes out
"endorsement" slips and an entire section of the Elections Code is
titled "endorsements."
I find it hard to believe that the candidates were not aware of
the misleading nature of the Bruin Democrats ad.
In my view, this Judicial Board decision does not violate the
freedom of speech. Sanctioning candidates for their violations of
Elections Board codes is not censorship or regulation and would be
upheld in a court of law. The facts are simple. There is no prior
restraint of what is placed in advertisements, endorsement slips or
campaign literature. No one edits a candidate’s message. Candidates
can choose to lie to voters, but they risk being sanctioned in the
election process.
Rather than asking Marwa and I to "apologize" for bringing the
issue into the open, perhaps York Chang should learn his own
Elections Code. He certainly knew about it in the fall. It’s kind
of interesting how memory forgets those discussions.
Weathers, a member of the Undergraduate Students Association
Council Judicial Board, is a senior majoring in
economics/business.