Several candidates in the Class of 2003 elections filed a complaint in three of the four races Tuesday night, citing unauthorized e-mail tactics.
Although Class of 2003 president Heather Oh won re-election easily, the vice-president, treasurer and secretary races will go to a runoff Thursday unless the Election Commission invalidates Tuesday's election results.
"The main substance of the formal complaint was [that] an e-mail... sent to many people was a violation of University policy, and what we are dealing with is whether that violation had a significant effect on the voting," said Elizabeth Kreul-Starr, Duke Student Government attorney general. She specified that the complaint contended that the e-mail had been sent out to too many people. Last June, the Office of Information Technology instituted a policy prohibiting mass e-mails to more than 100 students without permission.
DSG election bylaws do not address mass e-mails, however, and Kreul-Starr said the Election Commission, which must issue a ruling by 9 p.m. tonight, will be setting precedent on the issue.
Although Kreul-Starr said complaints were limited to whether the e-mail violated the OIT policy, some candidates said the e-mail's timing and content were dubious
The e-mail, which urged support for four members of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity--presidential candidate Chris Gough, vice-presidential candidate Jonathan Grieb, treasurer candidate John Solomon and secretary candidate Omid Nasab--was sent out at 11:47 p.m. Monday night, eight hours before online polling began.
"Things we do not want are ski trips for 50 people, shot glasses for 147 and nights at Mug Shots with covers but without tabs," the e-mail read, targeting the previous activities organized by incumbent candidates.
Saurabh Desai, who led the vice-presidential race in votes, said he thought part of the e-mail was negative campaigning but did not formally file a complaint.
"It was almost an individual attack on class members on the board," he said.
Grieb, who came in second to Desai, said he thought the e-mail was appropriate. "We haven't really found anything in the bylaws that said it was illegal," he said.
The bylaws state that no candidate should be "slandered or libeled," and also indicate that no campaign e-mails should be sent out during the window of voting.
The incumbent Class of 2003 Treasurer David Kolstein, who came in second Tuesday and will be in Thursday's run-off, said he did not file a complaint either, but that he thought some campaigning violated several election bylaws. Besides the e-mail, he said several candidates, particularly Pika members, posted flyers before they were allowed to.
"A lot of the people running for offices felt that the number of Pikas running together violated several rules before the elections started," Kolstein said.
He also accused the Pika candidate slate of running a disrespectful campaign.
"They're trying to criticize what we did without knowing what we did this year or what our budget is," Kolstein said. "I think it's kind of offensive what they did, in bashing what we did this year and our whole agenda."
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