Wednesday, February 4, 1998
Students First! may be exonerated by records
CHARGES: Clerical error, invoice blamed as cause for
misunderstanding
By Dennis Lim
Daily Bruin Contributor
Because the printing company contracted by Students First!
candidates last year has changed its stance, one of the election
fraud charges against USAC officers appears to have been
disproven.
Michael Now, who acted as a broker between USAC and the printing
company that produced the campaign signs, says that the appearance
of campaign fraud was due to a mix-up.
"It was all just an administrative error on the part of Agate
Printing," Now said.
To substantiate this, Now produced the invoice allegedly given
to him by Agate Printing.
Although Agate has previously said that the invoice found in the
election expense reports contained incorrect information, the
invoice supplied by Now on Monday matches the one found in the
expense reports.
According to Robert Rhoan, former finance committee chair, the
cost of the sandwich boards printed by Agate pushed Students First!
candidates over the expense limit.
Each candidate has a limit of $400, save for those running for
President, who have a limit of $600.
Representatives of Agate previously contended that USAC owed
Agate $3,500. However, documents from the election expense reports
and supplied by Now say that the total cost was only $1,000.
Presently, Agate refuses to answer questions concerning the
issue.
Now said that John McMahon, the chief financial officer of Agate
Printing who supplied the information on the first invoice, was not
familiar with the deal between Agate, Now, and USAC, which added to
the mix-up.
"McMahon just recently began working there, so he didn’t know
about the deal we had set up," Now said.
McMahon could not be reached for comment.
The controversy began two weeks ago when Robert Rhoan, after
resigning, alleged that USAC officials knowingly violated election
code by-laws during last year’s election.
According to Rhoan, USAC officials purchased posters from Agate
Printing for their sandwich boards at a price that put them well
over their spending limit.
Rhoan’s other charge was that some of last year’s USAC council
members made phone calls from their offices to solicit votes for
Students First! candidates.
In response to these allegations, a coalition of various student
groups has come together to file a petition with the Judicial Board
against USAC.
Justin Sobodash, president of Bruin Libertarians and a
presidential candidate last year, said at last night’s USAC meeting
that a petition would be filed.
Representatives from Bruin Republicans will also be involved in
the petition.
"We are going to file a petition with the judicial board to
address the issues that Robert Rhoan brought up," said Dan Ruppel
of the Bruin Republicans.
"We also have a couple of other issues that will be brought up
in our petition," Ruppel continued.
Included among the student groups are the Bruin Libertarians,
the Bruin Republicans and the Young Americans for Freedom.
A rally will be held today at noon in Meyerhoff Park, in front
of Kerckhoff Hall.