According to A.S. Election Manager Vishal Kotcherlakota, current Vice President of Finance and Resources Peter Benesch filed a grievance against the Tritons First slate on March 30. Kotcherlakota said Benesch accused the slate of pre-campaigning by reaching out to student orgs through email before the official campaigning period began, and of posting flyers on the Chancellor’s Complex.

In addition, the grievance stated that Lynne Swerhone and Ryan O’Rear, current Muir College senators who ran for reelection on the Tritons First slate, violated election protocol by promoting their slate on the their KSDT radio show “Muirworld.”

Kotcherlakota said the committee struck down the first complaint, but ruled that Swerhone and O’Rear had indeed violated election guidelines, and prohibited them from campaigning for one day. Although Benesch appealed the ruling to the A.S. Judicial Board, a board consisting of seven non-council students appointed by the president, the board upheld the sanction.

However, Benesch’s actions prompted a public apology from the Tritons First slate during the vice-presidential debates on April 5. Both Swerhone and O’Rear were reelected.

Independent presidential candidate Tan Dhillon filed an election-day grievance on April 9 against incumbent A.S. President Utsav Gupta, who was running for reelection. Dhillon claimed that Gupta, by keeping the Web site he had created during the 2009-10 election without specifying the year of his campaign, was being deceptive.

However, Gupta said the Web site was only active so the Guardian could keep him accountable for campaign promises.

The Students First slate also filed two election-day grievances against Tritons First, both for violating election protocol in Eleanor Roosevelt College.

In the first grievance, the Students First slate — represented by ERC senior Chris Westling — accused the Tritons First slate of posting un-approved election posters in the ERC common areas.

“This directly targets the freshmen voters and gives Tritons First an unfair advantage,” Westling said.

According to both election and college protocol, campaign flyers must be approved by resident advisers before being posted in colleges. As evidence, Westling presented photos — taken by Students First campuswide senatorial candidate Noor El-Annan — of the posters, an explanation of flyer policy from ERC Resident Dean Rey Guerrero and a note from ERC R.A. Samantha Lee stating that she had not approved the flyers.

However, the Tritons First slate, represented by presidential candidate Brian McEuen, said that the accusation was a miscommunication. He explained members of Tritons First had approached Lee’s co-R.A., Cody Griffin, to ask permission to hang the flyers. McEuen said Griffin gave his approval without notifying Lee.

“This is a misunderstanding and the problem comes from having two R.A.s, not on the part of the candidates,” McEuen said.

Students First also accused Tritons First of “dorm-storming” — visiting individual dorms to campaign.

According to A.S. election bylaws, disqualification — the severest consequence of a grievance ruling — only occurs when the accused party demonstrates malicious and repeated violations, or when the violation is so significant as to change the election outcome.

The most significant grievance in recent A.S. history occurred during the 2003 elections, during which Vice President Internal candidate Steve York filed a grievance against a Students First! slate. York claimed the slate had violated election protocol by displaying campaign posters on April 10, instead of taking them down the night before.

As a result, the committee — and later the judicial board —disqualified the entire Students First! slate including Vice President of External Affairs-elect Rigo Marquez, who was replaced by Harish Nandagopal, a candidate that shad run for the vice president of finance and resources position on the Students First! slate.

According to Kotcherlakota, the judicial board decided to overturn all three of this year’s election-day grievances, and the rulings had no effect on the results of the election.

Readers can contact Angela Chen at [email protected].