By
Maya Schechter and Kevin Clerici
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Brandon D'Angelo's campaign for ASUA administrative vice president was terminated early this morning after he failed to comply with election code sanctions.
D'Angelo was instructed at 3 p.m. yesterday to remove all campaign materials by 6 p.m. as penalty for sending a mass e-mail to more than 4,200 students, said ASUA election commissioner Joe Rogers.
Election codes state that campaign e-mails must be addressed to specific individuals, which D'Angelo's e-mail failed to do, Rogers said.
Shortly after 11 p.m. last night, ASUA President Ben Graff received word that one of D'Angelo's banners was still hanging on the Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority house, 1071 N. Mountain Ave.
Graff drove by the house afterward, and then contacted Rogers and assistant election commissioner Emily Hirleman, who met to verify the existing banner.
Rogers decided to disqualify D'Angelo at 12:30 a.m. today.
Earlier in the day, Rogers had told D'Angelo that if he had any problems removing his campaign materials, he should contact him immediately.
When the banner was discovered, Rogers said D'Angelo had not officially contacted him, he said.
"Brandon told me he called but he can't prove it because I don't have voice mail in my office," Rogers said. "He didn't e-mail me or call me at home, he didn't call Ben Graff. He said he was planning on calling me (this morning)."
D'Angelo said that he tried his best to take down all his campaign materials, but was unable to because the ladder at the sorority house was not available.
"I even hoisted up my campaign manager to try to reach it," he said. "Since we couldn't get it, I immediately called the election office at 5:45 p.m. No one was there and there is no machine. I had no way of getting in contact with (Rogers) - I don't see the importance of calling him at home. I wouldn't do that.
"I think it's absurd to expect us to have all material down in two hours after it has taken two months to put up," D'Angelo added.
The e-mails, which were compiled by D'Angelo's campaign manager Brandon Peterson, also endorsed Senate candidate Jason Korner. Rogers said Korner was given the same original sanctions - he cannot campaign in today's final day of elections and his materials had to be removed by 6 p.m. yesterday.
Korner refused to comment last night.
D'Angelo plans to appeal the disqualification to the ASUA Supreme Court.
Tricia Williams, D'Angelo's opponent, said when she first heard about the mass e-mail, she was upset with him for violating the elections code.
"It's not fair because I am running a fair and clean campaign, and I've done everything according to the code," she said.
Peterson said that he talked with Rogers prior to sending the mass e-mail, and believed the e-mail to be acceptable under the elections code.
"I think it all started with poorly written elections codes and ended with sanctions almost impossible to meet," D'Angelo said. "It was almost as if disqualification was inevitable."
