Two complaints have been filed against the REDvolution party and its presidential candidate Charles Haston by the Election Commission.
The complaint that specifically names Haston alleges that he falsified financial disclosure documents that were submitted to the Commission, which is required of all candidates running during a Student Government Association election season.
The Commission was prompted to file this complaint after discovering unregistered campaign material in the form of the site uhredvolution.com, which was used by REDvolution to solicit votes. The site was neither registered nor approved by the Commission and was omitted from financial disclosure documents. The complaint also specifies Haston’s running mate, Erica Tat, as the registered site administrator.
“The candidate (Charles Haston) submitted his party’s financial disclosure document and signed that it was completely accurate. However, the candidate omitted the cost of the campaign website on the form,” the complaint said. “Omitting the cost of the website from the financial disclosure is falsifying the document. Evidence has been brought to the Election Commission providing that this website had to be paid for in order to be ‘live’ at all.”
In response, the Commission has recommended the removal of Haston and, in effect, Tat from the top of the REDvolution ticket, which would drop them from the race.
The other complaint was filed against the entire party for failure to submit a marketing approval form for the campaign site, and the Commission has recommended a 24-hour campaign suspension.
Attorney General David Ghably reviewed the complaint and approved the decision for the case to be heard in front of the SGA Election Trial Board. They will decide whether to penalize Haston and REDvolution for the two separate complaints. The cases will be heard at 8:30 p.m. Monday in the Senate Chambers housed in the New UC North.
REDvolution’s site is currently unavailable.
General elections are February 25 through 27.
