DSG DELAYS RUNOFF VOTE

The Duke Student Government presidential race was thrown into flux early this morning when the DSG Judiciary ruled that part of the Election Commission’s weekend rulings was unconstitutional.

Today’s planned runoff between juniors Emily Aviki and Jesse Longoria will likely not take place as the Election Commission must now reconvene to determine how to proceed. The runoff, however, must occur by Thursday, per DSG bylaws. DSG Attorney General Elizabeth Ladner, chair of the Election Commission, could not be reached for comment after the Judiciary announced its decision.

Although the Judiciary upheld the commission’s April 2 finding that Aviki had violated campaign laws during the March 31 executive election, it decided the sanction forbidding Aviki to campaign during the resulting runoff period was illegal. A runoff is a separate election from the original vote, DSG Chief Justice Emilie Lemke said, and any punishments should only apply to the election during which the violation occurred.

The Judiciary sent the ruling back to the Election Commission with the recommendation that Aviki lose a fraction of her original vote count as punishment, which would send the race into a three-candidate runoff with Longoria and junior Russ Ferguson.

Ferguson submitted his appeal of the Election Commission’s decision early Sunday, but the Judiciary was unable to begin considering it until Monday because Lemke was out of town for the weekend.

In the original executive election, Longoria garnered a plurality of the vote, but he could not muster the 10 percent lead over the closest runner-up necessary to seal his bid for the presidency. In the final count, Longoria had 37 percent of the vote, Aviki had 33 percent and junior Russ Ferguson trailed with 29 percent.

Ferguson was eliminated from the runoff in the Election Commission’s original decision; if the commission follows the Judiciary’s suggestion, Aviki would be docked 4 percent and she and Ferguson would be tied, so both would be eligible for the runoff.

DSG bylaws permit officials to discount votes when determining sanctions for election violations. “If a candidate... is found guilty after polls are open, then the Election Commission may disqualify the candidate’s or campaign’s votes,” Lemke said, citing the DSG constitution.

Refusing to leave the race quietly, Ferguson filed his appeal Sunday with the Judiciary in which he decried the Election Commission’s decision and reiterated earlier allegations. Ferguson insisted that Aviki’s violations of election regulations should disqualify her from the runoff. The Judiciary did not disqualify Aviki, but its ruling could nonetheless extend Ferguson’s bid for the presidency.

“The more personal reason I’m filing the appeal is because I feel like a candidate cheated, and the election was so close that the votes that she got by cheating probably put her into the runoff,” Ferguson said before the hearing. “No matter what happens to me, for the future of DSG that’s sending a bad statement: to win you can cheat.”

Aviki said Monday she did not take Ferguson’s accusations all too seriously, and she did not believe that the Election Commission or student body would either. “It’s a lot of slander, it’s not a lot of fact,” Aviki said.

Longoria, however, has attempted to run his campaign outside of the controversy, distancing himself from the accusations volleying back and forth between the Aviki and Ferguson camps. “I’m doing my best to stay out of any situations that have arisen. I’m doing my best to control things I can control, and that’s my campaign,” Longoria said. “I trust the Election Commission to make the best decisions.”

Much of the contention arose from an incident March 29 when the Election Commission received notice of the slogans “Jesse’s pesky,” “Aviki’s tricky” and “Concerned citizens endorse Ross the boss” on the East Campus bridge. When all three candidates arrived on the scene, Aviki and Ferguson supporters argued over who was responsible for the incident, each accusing the other. Members of the Election Commission divided the bridge among the candidates that night and ordered that each paint over the section with his or her name on it.

Senior James Saad, a member of Ferguson’s campaign team, filed a complaint with the Election Commission that implicated Aviki in the incident.

Aviki said she was particularly struck by the Ferguson camp’s allegations. “I was very surprised that he could actually have the gall to say that I was responsible,” she said. Ferguson said Monday he did not know who was responsible for the bridge painting.

Aviki’s campaign has been fraught with controversy since a pro-Aviki banner was hung 20 minutes before official campaigning was supposed to begin at midnight March 21. The Election Commission cut her campaign funds in half and banned Aviki from hanging banners on Main West. Aviki blames her first campaign violation on a fast dorm room alarm clock and said that while the incident hurt the first day and was “unfortunate,” she was able to run her campaign within the budget constraints.

After Aviki’s second campaign violation—leaving a live link on her AOL Instant Messenger profile on election day—the Election Commission ruled Aviki could remain in the race but prevented her from campaigning and disqualified her from receiving the $5 budget allotment for runoff elections. Those final punishments were the pieces of the ruling the Judiciary found objectionable.

Ladner said while the commission decided that the student body should ultimately make the decisions, Aviki was sanctioned “because we did feel that she violated the rules twice, showing utter disregard for the by-laws, and that she should be punished, and have it made public knowledge.”