The Elections Board of the undergraduate student government decided
today to sanction three candidates running with the Bruins United slate
for violating a voter’s privacy.
Jesse Rogel, Sharona Daneshrad
and Megan Ward, who are running for president, internal vice president
and external vice president, respectively, were prohibited from
campaigning and leafleting from 3:45 until voting ends at 7 p.m.
The complaint was filed after the Daily Bruin published an article that
said Bruins United volunteers and candidates may have violated the
Elections Code during an event sponsored by Hillel at UCLA on Wednesday
night.
The Undergraduate Students Association Council Elections Board
interviewed all of those involved in the incident for two hours this
afternoon, according to Mallory Wang, the chair of the board.
Rogel,
Daneshrad and Ward were all interviewed, along with Bruins United
members Roxanna Pourshalimi and Boris Lipkin, and two of the Daily
Bruin reporters who attended the Hillel event to investigate potential
wrongdoing.
Wang said, “We found that the person who had the misconduct was not
a candidate, however, she was doing it on behalf of everyone who was on
the slate.”
According to the notice of finding released by the
board, Pourshalimi violated three items in the general regulations of
the Elections Code, which guarantee students the right to vote in
privacy and free from campaigning.
The finding listed the names of all 11 of the Bruins United candidates and said that Pourshalimi acted on their behalf.
“Individuals were present and campaigning while students were attempting to vote,” the finding stated. Those individuals “employed voter intimidation and tried to force students to vote.”
Because the formal complaint that prompted the investigation only listed Rogel, Daneshrad and Ward, the finding concluded, the Election Board “can only sanction the aforementioned individuals.”
Compiled by Audrey Kuo, Bruin senior staff.