In a meeting Tuesday, the Duke Student Government Judiciary ruled that a second extension of the campaign packet deadline was constitutional—validating the applications of 13 candidates previously deemed ineligible to run for Senate, vice presidential and class positions.
The campaign packets, which qualify students to run for office, were originally due April 2 at 5 p.m. But DSG Attorney General Var Shankar, a senior, extended the deadline to April 7 at 5 p.m to accommodate students who were out of town at the NCAA Final Four. The Judiciary ruled Shankar’s extension unconstitutional April 9, citing the Election Commission as the sole body responsible for modifying the election process. At that point, students who submitted campaign applications after the initial deadline were disqualified.
Eight of the 13 students who were eliminated from the election filed suit against the Judiciary’s ruling in an April 10 e-mail to Chief Justice Matt Straus, a sophomore. Straus notified the complainants Sunday morning that their case was dropped because it was an appeal of the case that the Judiciary had ruled on April 9.
Yesterday’s judicial ruling, however, upheld the Election Commission’s decision to move the final deadline for campaign packets to April 13 at 9 p.m. Election day will now shift from April 15 to April 20 and campaigning will last until polls close April 20. Students were informed of the changes yesterday in a blast e-mail sent around 5 p.m.
“The judicial precedent set [in the April 9 ruling] applies specifically to the instance in which the Attorney General—without an official vote of the Election Commission—moves the date which campaigning will begin,” the Judiciary’s majority opinion reads. “In this case, the date that campaigning begins has not been changed, and all actions taken by the Attorney General have been accompanied by an official vote by the Election Commission. Hence, the judicial precedent does not apply and this can be viewed as an entirely separate decision; the prior decision still stands.”
Junior Justin Robinette, who is running for a student affairs senate seat, filed a complaint just minutes after candidates were notified of changes to the election policy. Robinette said he thinks the extended deadline is unfair because it affects the campaigning process and postpones election day.
He added that the voting process officially started a few days ago, as some students studying abroad sent in absentee ballots via e-mail. Students studying abroad may send in absentee ballots beginning three days prior to the election.
“While I submit my petitions on time, follow regulations and guidelines and respect the rule of law, this does not apply to others in DSG leadership currently, and now we have extremely unqualified candidates joining every DSG race,” Robinette said. “Once the balloting process has begun, and once numerous votes, including votes abroad, have been cast... it’s indicative of how we let presumptuous post-adolescent teenagers with drinking problems and personal vendettas control DSG.”
Prior to the extension, Robinette’s race was uncontested.
DSG Executive Vice President Gregory Morrison, a junior, said the original candidates have a clear advantage over the new candidates because they had an extra week of campaigning. Morrison further argued for the constitutionality of the Election Commission’s decisions, pointing to an election bylaw in DSG’s constitution.
“The Election Commission will set the time and date which campaigning will begin,” the bylaw reads. “Any electoral situation not covered in this bylaw or any other DSG bylaw or the DSG constitution will be resolved by the Election Commission.”
Morrison said the Final Four weekend qualified as an unusual circumstance that required the Election Commission’s intervention. Because many students were pre-occupied with basketball and away in Indianapolis, students who normally would have applied did not have the chance, he added.
“We are trying to accommodate a major disruptive event in the life of the University, and to change the deadline to honor justice,” Morrison said.
Former DSG attorney general Meg Foran, a senior, said the election bylaws were intentionally broad to grant wide authority to the Election Commission so that dilemmas such as this can be resolved efficiently.
“The Election Commission has a great deal of latitude in actions where unexpected events come up. We must maintain that latitude for the Election Commission to maintain its job and rule under unprecedented, unexpected circumstances,” Foran said. “We have to deal with them and implement them without being worried about getting sued. It makes it very difficult to do our jobs.”
Junior Ben Bergmann, an athletics and campus services senator who is running for re-election, also filed a complaint and said he thinks the deadline was extended for “purely political reasons”—namely, to fill DSG with friends of next year’s elected officers. Before the extension, Bergmann was running unopposed.
“Clearly I raised the suit because I think what happened today was inappropriate,” Bergmann said. “I respect the Judiciary’s decision and that they had the constitutional authority to do what they did. I question why they did it and the ethical reasons behind it... the reasons disclosed publicly are not the truth.”
Chief of Staff Mike Lefevre, a junior and DSG president-elect, said he is pleased with the Judiciary’s decision to validate the campaign applications.
“I think that regardless of how anyone feels about constitutionality, the fact that the 13 students were facing ineligibility was really a shame,” Lefevre said. “Justice has been served—they’re able to run, the election is more competitive and more people are involved. There is a much more highly qualified pool of candidates.”
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