Editor's Note: Because The Spectrum cannot maintain journalistic integrity while writing a story in which it is involved, an editor from the student paper at Brown University was asked to write the story for The Spectrum. The Spectrum thanks Brian for his time and efforts.
The Spectrum filed a complaint with the Student Wide Judiciary against the Student Association on Tuesday, claiming that association violated New York State election law in last week's general election.
According to the complaint, which also named the Elections and Credentials Committee, a sample ballot provided outside voting booths failed to include a referendum asking students to vote on a $2 increase to The Spectrum's annual subscription fee, allegedly leading some students to miss the question on the real ballot. The Spectrum also claims that the Momentum Party was allowed to distribute campaign literature within 100 feet of the polling place though The Spectrum was barred from doing so.
The referendum received 591 "yes" votes to 389 "no" votes, but it failed to pass because less than 10 percent of the undergraduate student population voted on the issue.
Voting began March 26, but it wasn't until early afternoon on the second day of voting, after most students had already cast their ballots, that Spectrum editors discovered the error in the sample ballot, said Editor in Chief Sara Paulson.
Within half an hour of alerting the Student Association, someone had taped a copy of the referendum to the sample ballot, but not in the same place it would appear on the actual ballot, Paulson said.
"If you weren't aware it was there and you weren't looking for it, there's a good chance you wouldn't have seen it," Paulson said.
Student Association President Christian Oliver said the Erie County Board of Elections, not the Student Association, compiles and posts sample ballots before an election, and that it was The Spectrum's responsibility to provide the Board with information about the referendum.
"In a sense students spoke by not voting on it," Oliver said. "I think (the sample ballots) had no bearing on the election whatsoever."
The Board of Elections was responsible last week only for maintaining voting machines, not overseeing the election itself, said Dan Nemoyer, office manager at the Erie County Board of Elections main office.
"If we produce something it would have been given to us by whoever was requesting our assistance," Nemoyer said. "We have no control over what's contained."
Marjory Jaeger, a supervisor at the Board of Elections' service center who assigned personnel to the Student Association elections, confirmed that the employees she sent were on campus only to watch the machines, not to distribute voting instructions or monitor the election.
Oliver said he was surprised the referendum, which was designed to pull the newspaper out of debt, failed to pass, but that the sample ballots had nothing to do with The Spectrum's defeat.
If nearly all of the 1,779 students who voted for Student Association candidates had also voted on the referendum, the measure would have had the necessary number of votes to pass, Oliver said.
Referendums never receive the same attention as elections for positions in student government, Oliver said.
"The real question is why didn't more people vote in general," he said.
The Spectrum's second complaint, that a Momentum Party flyer distributed inside the voting area violated New York State Election Law, is invalid, Nemoyer said, because state regulations only apply to public elections and referenda.
"These are not elections we oversee," he said. Traditionally, the Student Association has allowed information about candidates - but not referenda - to be distributed outside voting booths, Oliver said.
The Student Association and the Elections and Credentials Committee have until April 8 to respond to the complaint, according to Chief Justice Trevor Torcello. The court will then decide whether to hold a hearing. Repeated attempts to reach Barbara Edsall, chair of the Elections and Credentials Committee, were unsuccessful.
Paulson said she and her co-editors will try to pass the referendum again next year.
In the meantime, The Spectrum will explore other options to climb out of debt.
Paulson said it was still a possibility The Spectrum would one day be forced to cut back from publishing three days a week to two.
Oliver said the Student Association had not ruled out a one-time deal to pull The Spectrum out of debt, but he said such measures would set a dangerous precedent and call the newspaper's independence into question.
The Spectrum ran into financial trouble after Sept. 11, 2001, and a poor economy sent national advertising revenue into a nosedive from which the newspaper never fully recovered, Paulson said. Raising student subscription fees was seen by all sides as a last resort.
"There was nothing else we could do - we'd cut the budget as much as we could," Paulson said.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
