An official letter from the former CRO, Dan Brunet, states SGA President Charlie Andrews was disqualified for committing several infractions over the campaign period.
The first fine was for wearing campaign T-shirts that hadn’t been approved by the CRO, at the candidate open house on March 13.
The candidate package states that “all campaign materials must be approved/viewed and stamped by the CRO before use or distribution, with no exceptions.”
Charlie Andrews was running on a slate with Kimberly Hempell (for VP Issues) and Kelsey Laplante (for VP services), and all three incurred a $10 fine for wearing the T-shirts, which brings the group to a combined $30 fine. When running on a slate, fines are given to every member of the group, because all members are considered “campaign agents” of each other.
The incumbent’s second fine came for campaigning in illegal areas, according to the letter. “(Charlie Andrews) wore said shirt mentioned above in the SGA office not only on March 15 but also on March 16. The first offence of this is a fine of $10 and the second occurrence of this offence is a fine of $50, according to the letter.
The third infraction Andrews committed involved his Facebook account. The CRO said, in a candidates meeting on March 9, that all candidates had to make their Facebook accounts linked to the CRO’s (they had to friend him), to make sure candidates weren’t violating the online campaigning protocols.
Andrews, according to the CRO letter, failed to give access to his profile, which is deemed as an “obstruction of (the) election official and (results in) disqualification from the election.”
Andrews appealed his case on March 20, but the decision was upheld.
Laplante is still running in the election. Hempell has withdrawn.
4 comments
I know nothing about the politics involved here but to have someone removed from running for such minor infractions seem ridiculous. Methinks young Mister Andrews must have crossed the wrong people.
No I am not involved with the Laurentian community and wouldn’t know this Andrews guy if he knocked at the door but have been involved in politics for over 40 years and I smell a rat and I have smelled lots of them.
I think this is silly, just for wearing campaign shirts and not allowing access to his facebook page? Clearly someone higher up has a personal issue and something to do with this because he has done his job this year and is a voter’s favourite. I personally do not like one of the candidates because my encounters with him were sexist and rude and that is not who I want representing me, a strong, intelligent, hard-working young lady. Since his first program he was in was a female majority, I thought his comments to both my partner (who was female as well) and myself were completely uncalled for. Just because you are a man, does not mean you will get a job in that profession over me who is a female. So that leaves me one choice for voting, which is sad 🙁 who I don’t know at all, hmm not very democratic.
fyi for all people reading this the facebook account in question was an old, not in use account
Harvey, I agree, someone must have made the wrong person unhappy. It seems to me that this CRO is drunk with power. Isn’t there a spider man line: “WIth great power comes great responsibility?”
Dan if you’re that hard up for Facebook friends, be more interesting. People will want to be your friends then. Or pay them.