Yesterday, through a series of executive orders, current Associated Student Government President Ben Linzey changed the constitution to erase an apparent campaign violation committed by presidential hopeful and current student trustee, Beau Flores, and his running mate, Jeff Vela.
The orders resulted from a need to address a conflict between the Election Code of Conduct (ECOC) form signed by candidates and the Election Rules and Regulations (ERR). However, the executive orders themselves may violate the constitution.
Article nine of the ASG Constitution ERR, previously said, “The campaigning process shall begin on the Thursday two weeks prior to election week. No campaign materials shall be posted or distributed before this time.” The document defined campaigning as any activity that has the purpose of increasing the likelihood of a candidate to be elected.
The Flores campaign violated this rule when it announced Flores and Vela were running for ASG president and vice president. However, the ECOC all candidates were required to sign contradicted election rules and regulations, stating campaigning could commence after signing.
Though the ECOC and ERR both state candidates are solely responsible to be familiar with and abide by the terms outlined in the ERR, which forbade campaigning before two weeks prior to election week, Linzey claimed credit for the confusion and early campaigning.
Article 13 of the ERR states violations of the election rules will result in automatic disqualification from running for office, but the executive orders written by Linzey nullify the violation committed out of confusion.
“It’s all because of the administrative error on our end of things because we were telling people they could start campaigning,” Linzey said. “That is solely on my shoulders because it’s my role to oversee those documents.”
According to the ASG constitution rules existing before today, the early campaigning by Flores and Vela disqualifies them from them the election. The executive orders written by Linzey nullify those rules.
Where Article nine once set the limit for campaigning two weeks prior to election week, because of Executive Order 17-04 it now reads, “Once the Election Code of Conduct has been signed by the candidate, the election committee chair and the director of student life, candidates may begin campaigning.”
The conflict of information began with previous elections and affected the current election through the ECOC, which is an attached portion of the ERR.
“Pretty much every single election in the last three years has been run on the precedent that you sign the code of conduct and you’re good to go,” Linzey said. “All that [ASG Vice President] Gabby [Gile] changed on that document was the date based on the one that [former Vice President] Jake Carmin used last year.”
However, since the ECOC is part of the ERR, it is subject to the same rules and regulations that all portions of the constitution must adhere to. All changes to the constitution must have three readings at regular meetings of the Senate before they are approved by a two-thirds majority vote.
“We didn’t realize that is a document that does require the three readings because it is a part of the rules and regulations. So that’s where the executive order comes in,” Linzey said.
The executive orders altering the ECOC and ERR did not follow the rules of the constitution because they circumvented the three readings before the Senate and the two-thirds majority approval vote.
Additionally, Article 15 of the ERR states the document “shall not be re-written or amended in its entirety in the form of one amendment. The intention is for this document to be changed as needed and not nullified in one decision of student government or any other governing body.”
Linzey worked around this rule by making the changes through four executive orders, two of which divided the ERR into halves and two that addressed the ECOC. Linzey defended the executive orders as actions taken in an emergency.
“The executive order should be used to further the president’s agenda or is used in a case of emergency and in this case, I’d say that’s definitely an emergency. So that’s why the executive orders included both the code of conduct and also the rules and regs,” Linzey said. “I think, given the situation, it was the correct thing to do in order for us to run that impartial, fair and honest election that we want.”
