Slate Starts Late

Pre-campaign activity leads to 24-hour delay for Smith/Barnby slate

Tessa Vanderhart Staff

Before this year’s UMSU election even started, the campaign of one UMSU election slate has been set back.

Campaigning began Monday at 6 p.m., but the Smith/Barnby slate started campaigning 24 hours later. This forced delay was punishment for violating UMSU bylaws on pre-campaigning.

Two formal complaints were made against the slate of Jim Barnby and Patrick Smith, candidates for vice-president (internal) and president, respectively, for making phone calls to arrange meetings with student groups before campaigning officially began.

Rulings regarding the complaints were issued on Feb. 3 and Feb. 8 by the Chief Returning Officer (CRO) of the elections, Caitlin Brown. Brown said that the one-day delay “counterbalances” any unfair advantage that may have been gained by the false start.

The first complaint, from incumbent UMSU women’s representative Aviva Ciplinksi, noted that Barnby had contacted the Womyn’s Centre to arrange a meeting during Reading Week.

Brown ruled that the start of Barnby’s campaign be delayed as a result.

“They realized that they should have maybe checked with me first, or read their rules more clearly,” she said.

“We were surprised at first, because our intent was never to violate any campaign rules,” said Smith. “After [Barnby] received the violation, we wanted to deal with this in a very decisive and professional way, just like a good UMSU executive should.”

The second complaint followed from this, when Barnby called the Womyn’s Centre back to reschedule the meeting. Because he mentioned the slate name, including the names of both candidates, the second ruling suspended Smith’s campaign for the same period. Brown did not feel it was necessary to restrict Barnby’s campaign further.

Brown noted that this second message to the Womyn’s Centre also mentioned UMSU’s budget and the way student group funding is allocated, which are part of the slate’s campaign platform — and this election’s adapted campaign rules stipulate that this is a form of pre-campaigning.

Barnby was also issued a warning that another infraction will result in his disqualification from the election.

Brown referred to UMSU bylaw 1000.29 to make the decision, which states: “No Member of the Union shall make public presentations or speak to groups of more than 5 Members of the Union on any subject relating to the election as determined by the CRO prior to the opening of campaigning.” Volunteer meetings are exempt.

Bylaw 1000.102 dictates that punishment is required if any unfair advantage is gained.

Brown acknowledges that the contact was not malicious, and after reviewing the bylaws, Smith said that he and Barnby consider the punishment to be fair.

Similar feedback, but no formal complaints, were submitted to the CRO from other student groups, including the Rainbow Pride Mosaic, the Association of Aboriginal Commerce Students and the Gamers Association.

Formal complaints must be submitted within 24 hours of a violation of election bylaws.

Brown explained that the complaints were the result of others knowing the election rules.

“I think they just knew the rules and [thought], ‘I don’t think these guys are supposed to be contacting me,” said Brown.

Volunteers for the slate were allowed to reserve postering space with blank posters provided by the CRO, which were replaced with campaign posters once the delay was over. This ensured that the slate would not be negatively affected in the race for poster space.