[UPDATED 1:25 a.m. Boyer has been removed from the ballot. Continuing coverage here.]
The Joint Elections Committee, the independent body that oversees Student Association elections, just spent two and a half hours hearing presidential candidate Kyle Boyer’s defense of four campaign violations.
The JEC has now moved into executive session, which is closed to the public, to deliberate. If he is penalized on three or more of the four complaints against him, Boyer will be removed from the runoff ballot, and sophomore Nick Polk, the second runner-up in the election, will compete against sophomore Julie Bindelglass.
Boyer, a junior, has been accused of failing to report the use of a friend’s car on H Street in front of Kogan Plaza, which Boyer used to display posters, play music and dance on during general election on Feb. 25 and 26. On expenditure reports, SA candidates are required to report the fair market value of all items used for their campaign. The total of these items cannot exceed $1,000 for each presidential candidate.
Boyer said the car was not his, but the private property of a friend, Dave Fowler. Boyer, with his counsel, junior Seth Lyons, argued that since Fowler’s car would be parked on campus every other day of the week, parking it in on H Street in front of Kogan Plaza is not any different.
“There is no delinaition between space over here and space over there,” Boyer said. “Space isn’t regulated. It’s private property everywhere.”
James Bonneau, the JEC’s investigator, said Boyer’s use of the car was unfair and he should be assessed a violation for failing to report the car in his expenditure report.
“Seth is going to get up here and tell you Fowler needed a place to park his car,” Bonneau said. “It didn’t need a place to be parked. They made a strategic decision to move it at 2 a.m. in front of Kogan. I can’t tell you what someone was thinking. I guarantee you they were not going to park there. That’s disingenuous. It was there at 2 a.m. because they wanted to use it for the campaign.”
During this two and a half hour long trial, Boyer, his counsel and the JEC repeated themselves countless times, arguing whether the car on H Street should have been reported as a campaign expenditure.
The JEC is now in executive session deciding whether Boyer will be assessed violations.
Eight years ago, Roger Kapoor, an SA presidential candidate, was removed from the ballot for election violations. Kapoor exceeded the $1,000 spending limit by $20 for failing to report the fair market value of pizzas. Kapoor filed suit with the Student Court and was added to the ballot again.
The JEC will announce their decision once they come out of executive session. Stay with The Hatchet for updates on the decision.
UPDATE 1:14 a.m.
It has now been almost six hours since Boyer’s hearings began. Members of the public and the press were removed from the JEC office after midnight, as the Marvin Center rules state that no students can be in the building after hours. There is still no word on whether or not Boyer will be on the ballot or not. Stick with The Hatchet for the official word.
