The undergraduate student government election board sanctioned three candidates Friday for a Facebook post that violated social media rules.
On Thursday morning, a student named Christian D. Green posted a Facebook status about three people running in this year’s Undergraduate Students Association Council elections: Malik D. Flournoy-Hooker, Chloe Pan and Sayron Stokes. The sanction said Green’s post violated regulations because it included the word “vote” and occurred before social media campaigning is allowed to begin.
This is the first sanction of the year.
Candidates for the election became official April 5. Social media campaigning starts April 17 at noon.
In his post, Green shared a Daily Bruin story that announced the 22 USAC candidates, and wrote that students should vote for the candidates he named. The post has been modified to exclude the word “vote.”
The Investigations Committee of the board, which is responsible for determining whether a violation has occurred, requested the candidates untag themselves from Green’s post and prohibited them from campaigning on social media for 30 minutes on April 18.
Green said the candidates did not ask him to post for them, and he posted because he heard they were running and wanted to support them. None of the candidates immediately responded to a request for comment before publication.
The election board is responsible for enforcing the USAC Election Code and issues penalties, or sanctions, to candidates or slates which violate the code’s regulations on campaigning. Slates are groups of candidates who run together on similar platforms. This year, there are 22 candidates for the 14 council positions, and two slates.
[Read more: USAC Election Board outlines this year’s campaigning regulations]
The election code lists regulations about what candidates can and cannot post on social media about the election, and when they are allowed to start campaigning online and on campus. Penalties for sanctioned candidates can include being prohibited from posting or being tagged in any status online in regards to their campaign.
Campus campaigning starts April 24. Voting and flyering begin May 1. Results are announced May 5.
Click here for full coverage of the 2017 USAC elections.