Issue date: 4/8/09 Section: News

The opening days of the Associated Students, Inc., election campaign brought allegations of election code violations against several candidates.

Felix Barba, ASI vice president of university affairs, accused the opposition candidates of staking out territory for their campaign signs on Sunday before campaigning officially began, giving them an unfair advantage by claiming prime sign locations. If true, the actions could be a violation of the election code.

Barba filmed the candidates in question Sunday evening, including ASI Executive Vice President Roberto Torres, Director of Undeclared Students Sarah Couch, and other ASI members and students.

Torres and other candidates were accused of similar campaign violations last year, when several students complained that signs were posted at 10:30 a.m. the day before campaigning was to begin.

Another student filed a complaint against Barba, alleging he had also put signs up too early.

Current ASI president Miguel Cervantes told Analia Mendez, then the chair of the ASI Election Complaint Committee, that setting out signs prior to the campaign period to claim spots was a "typical practice," according to Mendez's report on the incident.

Barba said that he was on campus at approximately 10:30 p.m. to supervise the start of the campaign. The campaigning groups, Team Progress and Team Provide, were on campus before midnight waiting to put up signs.

Barba noticed the stakes when he arrived and said that other people had taken photos of stakes driven into the ground as early as 4:00 p.m. In the video the stakes were clearly visible, sticking up from the ground - a violation of rules that Barba and other candidates claim Torres and other Team Progress members were fully aware of.

Barba asked during filming if they were claiming ownership of the stakes; none of the candidates responded.

Torres, who is running for ASI president, called the accusation an attempt to distract students from the campaign's issues.

"Felix and I used to be very good close friends, but I think there have been some things that have occurred on this board that have caused Felix to have this animosity," Torres said. "I really don't think that this is a major issue."

Team Provide member Terry Martin was present during Barba's filming and said that Torres was aware of the campaign rules.

"It was made very clear this time, extremely clear…you can't campaign in any way, shape or form before the campaign period officially begins," Martin said.

Other members of Team Progress said that the filming made people uncomfortable, including one of the accused students, Nick Allen.

"While (Barba) was there he put forth an effort to catch me in some form of early campaigning…his barrage of questions and accusations made the whole experience awkward for all parties included," Allen said.

Joaquin Castaneda, ASI office of governmental affairs director, thinks that future incidents like this can be avoided if ASI changes its campaign system.

Castaneda would like to see the campaigning begin during daylight hours with advisers from Student Affairs present to supervise and enforce posting policies.

"Since they do have a role in elections, I would actually welcome that," Castaneda said. "You can imagine…the wide variety of issues that can arise out of putting it at a time that's really late, having no one overseeing the posting policy."

Julia Baum can be reached at jbaum@statehornet.com.

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