SA election accusations come to light in court

Three court petitions stemming from the recent Student Association presidential and vice presidential elections found their way to the SA Supreme Court last Thursday.

Held in Lecture Center 21, nearly 40 people gathered to hear the accusations surrounding unfair and malicious campaign practices play out in front of the court.

Representing himself and former vice-presidential candidate Rebecca Fioravanti, SA president-elect Justin Wax Jacobs stood by his allegations that an acquaintance of Sen. Matthew Wimpelberg said that the senator made claims that Wax Jacobs adopted a stolen campaign platform as his own.

The charges against him, Wax Jacobs explained, came after some accused him of taking full credit for contract negotiations with the CDTA carried out by his former office, the SA Legislative Affairs Department, which he served as assistant director last semester.

Sen. Ben Jacobs and SA President Joshua Sussman dismissed Wax Jacobs’ charges as “hearsay.” Both Sussman and Jacobs represented Wimpelberg, former SA presidential candidate Joe Bonilla and SA vice president-elect Leah Rotella.

In an e-mail regarding the cases, Wimpelberg said, “I was a bit disappointed in the amount of hearsay that was presented in the court cases.”

Wax Jacobs declined to comment on the cases until decisions are made.
The second court petition was Fioravanti versus Rotella and  Elections Commissioner Meagan Chen, who was not present at court.

Fioravanti claimed that Rotella, a residential advisor on Colonial Quad, used her RA meetings to campaign, and closed it off to other candidates.

Supreme Court Justice Jameelah Tucker said she found those claims hard to believe as she serves as a managerial assistant on Colonial, and said “all are welcome” at those meetings.

Fioravanti also said that she was taken off the ballot for approximately 20 hours, at which Sussman responded that it was only about four hours and was “well before the election period.”

Wax Jacobs said that his running mate had been “completely, emotionally wrecked” by the news, which hindered her ability to campaign.

In an e-mail, Fioravanti said, “Sitting through the Court case I was completely disgusted at the individuals that the other side chose to represent them.”

“The other interesting fact is that Josh Sussman appointed 5 out of the 6 Justices, the other being Chief Justice Brandon Patterson who is a close friend of Sussman.”

The last petition was that of Bonilla and Rotella against Wax Jacobs and Fioravanti for alleged campaign violations. According to the petition, “[Wax Jacobs and Fioravanti] blatantly and purposefully ignored the rules and bylaws which govern our elections.”
“Dorm-storming,” or door-to-door campaigning, was among specific violations that were addressed by the court, and the times they were conducted.

Wax Jacobs said on the night of April 13, two days before the election period was to begin, his campaign team had been notified that they could not campaign after 10 p.m. His campaign team was also warned the very next day when they were caught campaigning early in the day; they were told that campaigning can only take place on the quads between the hours of 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.

Wax Jacobs said he wasn’t aware of these rules before the warnings were issued.
In response, Sussman declared that the “election process is broken, it’s not proper, it’s not just” and the rules are outdated and should be reviewed by the court.
Wax Jacobs said the rules may be outdated, but those are the current rules, and he followed them to a tee during his campaign.

As of press time, Patterson said the court had not come to any decisions on either case.
In a text message regarding the court cases, Bonilla said, “Regarding the case, regardless of the outcome, one thing is certain: SA is a broken organization. Real constitutional and bylaw reform is needed to prevent the situation we saw on Thursday and cumulatively all year round.”