By
Maya Schechter
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Elections head overstepped his bounds, justices agree
The ASUA Supreme Court reinstated Brandon D'Angelo's candidacy for administrative vice president because the elections commissioner didn't have the power to disqualify him, according to the court's opinion.
The Court reversed the decision made by Joe Rogers, elections commissioner for the Associated Students, because elections code does not permit the "Elections Commissioner to impose any suspension, sanction, fine or disqualification during the days of the General Election."
Rogers disqualified D'Angelo in the early morning of March 8, after he failed to comply with sanctions which he received for sending a mass e-mail to more than 4,200 University of Arizona students on the first day of general elections.
Mass e-mails are not allowed, Rogers said, and therefore D'Angelo committed a gross and negligent violation of campaign rules.
D'Angelo was ordered at 3 p.m. to stop campaigning, and had three hours to remove all campaign materials from campus. Later that night, a large banner was found at the Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority house, prompting his disqualification.
The Court agreed with Rogers' finding that D'Angelo's e-mail constituted a violation of the code. However, the Court said Rogers "was powerless to discipline D'Angelo."
The opinion states, "Any candidate who commits any gross, negligent violation of campaign rules shall be subject to the impeachment powers of the ASUA Senate."
According to the opinion, Rogers should have continued the election and allowed the voters to decide the outcome. Then, if D'Angelo was declared the winner, an appeal could be made to the new Senate to remove him from office.
The court ordered ASUA to hold a special run-off election between D'Angelo and Tricia Williams, the original two candidates for the position.
Although Rogers said he will respect the court's decision, he said he did not believe he overstepped his power.
"Ninety-five percent of what I said was correct according to the Court, but we just looked at different (election code) chapters so we had different opinions," he said.
D'Angelo said last week that he was happy to see his name cleared and that the court agreed Rogers' decision was wrong.
Rogers also said he thinks the election code is a bit contradictory, and e-mail policies need to be made more clear for next year's election.
The opinion goes on to say that the justices do not condone D'Angelo's actions and agree that is within the power of the new senate to conduct impeachment proceedings if D'Angelo wins the new election.
Rogers will meet with Williams and D'Angelo individually today and will then decide when to hold the run-off election - which will be held online.
"I want to have the election as quickly as possible so the student body has the chance to elect their administrative vice president," Rogers said.
The elections will most likely be held within the next two weeks because the administrative vice president-elect needs enough time to begin planning for the upcoming term, he added.
The current Senate will need to approve the new election date, said ASUA President Ben Graff.
"Our overall goal is to resolve this by May 1 so we can inaugurate our full cabinet and Senate together," he said.
