The UF Supreme Court determined that three upcoming Students Party engineering senators will be allowed to keep their seats.
The court met Sunday night to hear the Election Commission’s recommendation to disqualify the Students Party engineering candidates. The justices ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the Students Party violated codes, so disqualification was no longer an issue.
“The mixed finding of fact and law was not supported by substantial evidence,” said acting Chief Justice Cecily Welsh after the hearing.
A candidate for the Students Party contacted a student organization to get information about its meeting. The organization had already met, but the president offered to send information through its list-serv. The political advertisement ended up being sent through an academic list-serv, which violates election codes.
Michael Hacker, the Election Commission chairman, said the party should have foreseen that the organization could have sent the email through an academic listserv instead of an organization listserv.
The election codes state that a political party is liable for the individuals and organizations that support it. If there is clear evidence that the party asked the organization to violate election codes, the Election Commission can hold the party responsible.
Jonathan Ossip, representing the Students Party, said the email was sent, but the party did not ask for it to be sent through a listserv.
“The clear intent was lawful,” Ossip said. “We did not solicit the unlawful action.”
The court ruled that there wasn’t a strong enough connection. There wasn’t enough evidence to show that the Students Party could have anticipated the results, Welsh said after the hearing.
Associate Justice Tim Mason said clearer limits on what can be foreseen must be set.
Welsh said it will be outlined in the court’s opinion.
The Students Party decided not to appeal another decision, in which the Election Commission ruled that the Unite Party did not coerce Greek voters to vote in Student Government elections.
At Friday’s hearing, the Students Party presented an email from Beatrice Diehl, a member of Sigma Kappa sorority, as evidence. She wrote that sisters get incentives to put their “I voted” stickers on a board in the sorority house.
However, Diehl was not available for questioning.
Hacker said the Students Party did not present any evidence that the Unite Party solicited actions from the sorority.
The Students Party decided not to appeal due to the difficulty of collecting evidence, Ossip said.
The Student Senate will vote whether to pass the election results at Tuesday’s Senate meeting.
