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Former candidates contest grievances

Complaints of misconduct have been filed against candidates in the March 11-12 SGA elections.

Former presidential hopeful Kaine Hampton and running mate Hannah McConn said their campaign suffered because of unfounded allegations of misconduct.

Former presidential candidate Brent Koehn and running mate Mark Cochrane were disqualified for a Web site Koehn said they did not create.

On March 5, an anonymous complaint was filed against Hampton and McConn for allegedly misusing student fees to make copies of campaign fliers in the Campus Activities Department.

Chief Election Commissioner Micah Kenfield received an e-mail stating one of Hampton and McConn’s campaign fliers was left on the Campus Activities Department copier.

Campus Activities Director Marcella Leung said she was present for the discovery of the flier. However, Nancy Hays, Campus Actvities front office administrator, said Hampton did not make copies of election-related material, but did give her a flier similar to the one found on the copy machine.’

‘After deliberation and re-interview of the suspects, the SGA commission finds the following: 1) That there are multiple stories of what happened – everyone interviewed had a different perspective; 2) That regardless of this, the candidate admitted to trying to make a photocopy of his flier in violation of Campus Activities policy,’ Kenfield wrote in an e-mail.

McConn and Hampton were prohibited by the election committee from any campaigning, ranging from updating their Facebook statuses to talking to their friends about the election.

McConn said there was no way that she, Hampton, or their sponsor, the NAACP, could have made the copies because of the required password that none of them possessed.

She said another complaint was filed against her and Hampton before the election started.

Financial disclosures are to be turned in for verification of where the candidates choose to spend their funds. Kenfield banned McConn and Hampton from running because he said they had not turned their paperwork in.

McConn said that she and Hampton had turned in their paperwork long before it was due, and when they told Kenfield this, he had not checked.

‘There was no investigation or trial; he just charged us as guilty, like you’re guilty, you’re out, you’re done,’ McConn said.

McConn said both she and Hampton appealed the ban to Kenfield, who she said disregarded their appeal and said that the matter was not in his hands.

McConn and Hampton met with Dean of Students William Munson and the committee on March 9 to file another appeal.

Three days later, the committee issued an apology to Hampton and McConn and said their appeal had initially been filed improperly.

‘I think Micah Kenfield is incompetent of his job, and I am very disappointed in the election commission. I was very upset at how this election was run,’ McConn said. ‘I think we should all be entitled to run a fair campaign.’

Kenfield said he sent out a general e-mail alerting candidates that many of them had not turned in their financial disclosures and, in doing so, risked disqualification.

He said Hampton and McConn had turned in their information before the deadline and did not lose campaign time.

As for the photocopier misconduct, Kenfield said a campaign flier was found in the staff photocopy machine. A complaint and several eyewitnesses which led to an investigation. McConn submitted an appeal on March 6, which was addressed March 9.

‘We got the committee and meeting as quickly as we could do it,’ Kenfield says.

Assistant Dean of Students Kamran Riaz said that the complaint did not meet the requirements because of an address mistake and was therefore pulled.

Kenfield said he made a clerical error, but the election commission stands by the decision made.

Koehn said in his case, a Web site was constructed under his name that parodied his values as a candidate.

‘They basically tried to discredit us,’ Koehn said. ‘Micah actually brought it to our attention that there was a Web site up and that I didn’t have proof for it. He insisted that I made it all up and disqualified me from the election.’

Koehn also e-mailed UH President Renu Khator, but did not receive a response.

‘I just think that they should’ve taken into consideration that they extended the deadline because they didn’t get enough applicants, that I participated, that I wanted to be a part of this, and I was disqualified for a bogus reason. It just doesn’t make any sense,’ Koehn said.

Kenfield, however, said that Koehn was never removed from the ballot. He said that Koehn and Cochrane were disqualified because they had not advertised or campaigned at all, and since they were behind their four opponents after the election’s first day, they would not have won, anyway.

‘We didn’t make any decisions without having a heavy investigation on these offenses and charges,’ Kenfield said.

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