A voting booth for the 2012 ASUC general election set up in front of a campus fraternity house has prompted the ASUC attorney general to push for a temporary rule that would prevent specific parties or candidates from running biased voting stations.
The CalGreeks voting booth is hosted on the lawn of Sigma Phi Epsilon — of which Student Action presidential candidate Connor Landgraf is a member — and is giving out free food and providing computers for voting on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week. The rule would effectively disallow anyone officially associated with any campaign, including Student Action, from running the event.
A voting booth that is not associated with a particular campaign cannot be regulated by the elections council, but the temporary rule would prevent campaigns from running their own stations with material incentives.
“This is to ensure that there aren’t any biased people running the voting booth,” said ASUC Attorney General Deepti Rajendran, adding that Student Action banners were taken down from the CalGreeks location.
The Sigma Phi Epsilon house borders Channing Circle — a central location for the Greek community. Originally, Jas Hora, the vice president of event programming for the Interfraternity Council and a campaign manager for Landgraf, was listed as a contact person on the Facebook event advertising the voting booth. But he was later removed from the event.
Under the temporary rule, if agents of a candidate or campaign are found to be involved in providing unapproved incentives, their party or candidate could be held accountable, pending an investigation by the attorney general. After a meeting with the elections council Monday, members running the CalGreeks event enacted measures to ensure that the voter booth will not be biased toward any candidate or party, according to Rajendran.
ASUC bylaws state that a temporary rule may be implemented by the elections council chair when an “urgent situation necessitates temporary additions … provided all candidates are affected equally.” The rule cannot take effect until approved by a majority vote of the judicial council with at least three members present. Rajendran said early Monday afternoon that the judicial council had not yet approved the rule.
The CalGreeks booth has been held for at least the last three years, according to Tiffany Kirkland, president of the Panhellenic Council, which represents many campus sororities. Last year, the event was held at Sigma Alpha Epsilon and also gave out free food. Kirkland said the goal of the event is to mobilize the Greek community.
“One of the (affiliated) fraternities that has the largest lawn and the largest space is SigEp,” Kirkland said of this year’s event.
Chloe Hunt is the lead student government reporter.
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im confused, if a new temporary rule had to be enacted, what actual rule were they breaking?
since when is writing about things that MAY happen journalism? #dailycalsucks #noonVOICE #ohwait,VOICEgotcancelled #LOLDAILYCAL
you think you’re so cool for using all those hashtags, you troll.
You are the troll.
So people want internet-based elections for high office, not just ASUC? SOUNDS LIKE A GREAT IDEA!
The whole ASUC election is a joke. I had multiple people call me up because I happen to know them and ask me to vote for them and their parties slate without giving their platform. Assuming that b/c I know them I should be voting for them. (but I course I but them as my last options for candidate since they ever give me their platform)
the greek community is a legitimate community on campus that is allowed to mobilize to elect the people they see fit in office. if the other parties want to cry about it because greeks most likely wont vote for them well then guess what, there’s an easy solution! do something for the fucking greek community. or mobilize your own damn communities. but please at least dont do this charade where u pretend you want as many people as possible to vote… i mean except when theyre not voting for you specifically that is
Thank god for the swift actions of our ASUC Attorney General regarding this “urgent situation”. They single-handedly prevented a catastrophe. This whole duping college students with food thing is definitely a new predatory act that must be stopped. We all know that Berkeley students have very weak opinions and are easily swayed by delicious Chipotle burritos. I went to vote at that station today and declined my burrito because I knew that with every bite, I’d taste sadness by letting down the integrity of our student government.
Student Action offered me $10 to vote for their executive slate.
Is that allowed ?
are you serious?!!!!
u make a mockery of urself with such lies.
Correct me if I am wrong, but a higher voter turnout should yield a more fair election. Either you have a serious problem with Greeks voting or you are an idiot who doesn’t understand the democratic process.
The general concern is that this promotes a higher voter turnout…in an environment possibly biased towards one of the parties. Thus = less fair. Physical voting should only be allowed on campus.
I heard that supposedly Calserve and Student Action spend the entire week annoying people on Sproul in order to get them so annoyed that they don’t vote. Since they already have their base supporters who will come out to vote for them low turnout is beneficial to them. Any thoughts?
problem is that it’s impossible to control where people vote. they could be voting right now at a private party with free booze for all we know. if you want non-partisan voting booths, you can’t allow online voting, period.
This is ridiculous. Voting booths should ONLY be on campus. How are you going to say that this will not benefit Student Action. So fucking ridiculous.
This is why in the real world (outside campus), you don’t vote for politicians on the internet.
I don’t see a problem. There is no requirement to vote for a specific candidate to vote at that voting booth or to get the free food and there is no knowledge of which candidate a potential free food recipient voted for.
That may be true, but in a space where people with a preference for certain candidates are providing you with such perks and services, one may be inclined to repay them for said perks and services.
Chloe Hunt, you fucking bitch, STOP your biased reporting!
It’s clear you hate the Greeks by now. Let someone with no hate write about anything to do with them. Okay???
The above comment is sexist and repulsive. Who the hell feels they have the right to say that about a volunteer undergraduate reporter, or anyone for that matter? Guest, whoever the hell you are, you make me want to vomit.
Um… How does reporting on the ASUC Attorney General’s push for a new rule make her anti-Greek? She’s the ASUC reporter. That’s what she does. Your blind vitriol is encouraging way more hate for the Greek system than she is – I can tell you that much. I don’t much care for the Daily Cal in general, either, but for God’s sake, be an adult.
It’s also clear that you’re a Greek. Chloe doesn’t hate Greeks. She’s just the only reporter in a long time who’s had the balls to write truthfully about elections, and that scares the sh*t out of all of you.
Guest, you fucking bitch, STOP your biased commenting!It’s clear you hate CHloe by now. Let someone with no hate write about anything to do with her. Okay???
lol no hate
damn, this is really going to put a stop to my NO on VOICE booth