Electoral dysfunction, again
Michelle Zetek
Issue date: 3/8/10 Section: News
Media Credit: Anonymous SourceSeveral complaints were filed alleging violations of the university's election rules. This picture purports to show two students violating election rules on behalf of Trustee candidate Richard Stanton.
The unofficial election results are in: Junior Roshina Khan won the race for Student Member of the Board of Trustees; Saad Jamil won the race for President of USG; and Raza Jafri, running unopposed, won the race for Vice President of USG.
In the race for UIC Senate, Sean Williams eeked out slightly more votes than Neill Drumm.
But the election process is not over yet.
Sources indicated to the Chicago Flame that at least three complaints have been filed against Jamil for violating rules relating to the placement of his posters. If found guilty of the infractions, he could be disqualified.
Jamil did not respond to a request for comment although sources with knowledge of the situation said he was "freaking out" about the complaints.
The Flame has also learned that several complaints were filed against trustee candidate Richard Stanton, which would not lead to his disqualification (he lost) but could be a headache for him nonetheless.
According to one of the complaints, filed by a student named Christina Demetrio and obtained by the Chicago Flame, two students -- Pedro Lopez and Kevin Roberson -- violated election rules by going door to door with a laptop in the dorms. The complaint reads:
"Pedro Lopez and Kevin Roberson were going door to door with a laptop telling people to vote for their friend, Rich Stanton. I later found out that they are pledges to BKZ and all pledges were required to campaign for Rich. Since Rich is responsible for these people he is at fault. I am a resident of Courtyard and they came to my door asking me to vote, though I had already."
The Flame sent a request for comment to Stanton, Roberson and Lopez, but they did not respond. BKZ President Alexandre Spassov Endiakov did, however, respond to our request for comment.
"By no means do we require any of our pledges to campaign for Richard, nor did we ask them to. We were not aware that anyone outside of Richard's campaign workers was campaigning. The pledges were not a part of Richard's campaign but felt they were helping Richard by doing this and did not know that it was against the election rules," wrote Endiakov. "Disciplinary actions for these individuals are currently under consideration by the fraternity."
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In the race for UIC Senate, Sean Williams eeked out slightly more votes than Neill Drumm.
But the election process is not over yet.
Sources indicated to the Chicago Flame that at least three complaints have been filed against Jamil for violating rules relating to the placement of his posters. If found guilty of the infractions, he could be disqualified.
Jamil did not respond to a request for comment although sources with knowledge of the situation said he was "freaking out" about the complaints.
The Flame has also learned that several complaints were filed against trustee candidate Richard Stanton, which would not lead to his disqualification (he lost) but could be a headache for him nonetheless.
According to one of the complaints, filed by a student named Christina Demetrio and obtained by the Chicago Flame, two students -- Pedro Lopez and Kevin Roberson -- violated election rules by going door to door with a laptop in the dorms. The complaint reads:
"Pedro Lopez and Kevin Roberson were going door to door with a laptop telling people to vote for their friend, Rich Stanton. I later found out that they are pledges to BKZ and all pledges were required to campaign for Rich. Since Rich is responsible for these people he is at fault. I am a resident of Courtyard and they came to my door asking me to vote, though I had already."
The Flame sent a request for comment to Stanton, Roberson and Lopez, but they did not respond. BKZ President Alexandre Spassov Endiakov did, however, respond to our request for comment.
"By no means do we require any of our pledges to campaign for Richard, nor did we ask them to. We were not aware that anyone outside of Richard's campaign workers was campaigning. The pledges were not a part of Richard's campaign but felt they were helping Richard by doing this and did not know that it was against the election rules," wrote Endiakov. "Disciplinary actions for these individuals are currently under consideration by the fraternity."
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