I’m particularly amused by the implication that it is ok to make classroom announcements together, but not ok to plan making such announcements together.

As someone who is not involved in the AMS, can someone tell me why (as candidates have said they were told at the All Candidates’ meeting) it might be okay for them to make classroom announcements together… but not ‘coordinate’ making those announcements together? And were there not other candidates who also campaigned at the same times in the same locations without being declared a slate? I find this very confusing…

Also, when it comes to photo evidence that poster placement was done together – I find that to be a very difficult charge to make stick. As someone who has postered on campus numerous times, there are a limited number of places where you CAN put posters up (where they will not be taken down). When postering, you want to make sure that the relevant people read your posters… so I usually would put them near other posters for similar events (i.e. Antigone posters near VDay posters). So, how can you prove that because the posters were close together, the intention was to create a slate? There could be many other intentions for such a situation (i.e. to put the posters with other campaign posters).

Also, while I do understand that the Elections Committee is not a court, the fact that they have dealt with complaints differently in the past (i.e. by contacting the candidates) and didn’t in this case leaves it open to ‘charges’ of bias. I DO NOT think that it was biased but I think that a procedure should be developped on how to deal with complaints that should be stuck to so that it is consistent and above reproach.

And, one last thing about the ‘false allegations’ that were supposedly being investigated that were referred to in the first e-mail. I have a really hard time being okay with people being penalized for ‘false allegations’. I say this only because there are many times in which allegations of a crime or infraction (especially say rape… when it is a he said, she said thing…similar to this) cannot be proven, but it does not mean that they were false. I’m not saying that is the case here. I’m just saying, such a move would discourage people from reporting real abuses. Something to think about…