Meghan Hutchinson - Story #2

Students gather outside the Ole Miss Student Union for a pep-rally during elections.

The Investigations of Ole Miss Elections

It is the season of election time on the Ole Miss campus! People are lined up on the sidewalks passing out flyers and stickers for the candidates they are supporting. What most people really don’t know are the rules and regulations that each candidate has to stand by, in order to run a proper and legal campaign.

Before elections start each candidate is well aware of what rules they have to follow once campaign day starts. According to Olemiss.edu candidates are allowed to use social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and blogs. Candidates may not use any webpage related to Ole Miss. Candidates may use flyers, but flyers can only be posted with tape, staples, or pushpins. The flyers cannot attack any other candidate. There is also a size limit to the flyers; they are only allowed to be 8.5 x 11 inches in size. Other rules of elections are, no buying food or alcohol, no mass emails to students unless the emails are personalized, and campaigning is not to take place within 60 feet of any classrooms.

Last fall (2010) the Ole Miss campus held their annual elections for Miss Ole Miss, Colonel Reb, Homecoming Queen, Senior Class Officer, and Campus Favorites. When elections were held last year, the voting showed that there would be a run-off for Homecoming Queen. The run-off would be between three candidates, Diana Price, Christin Gates, and Douglas Strahan. When it came time to vote for the run-off between the three candidates, it was brought to the Associated Student Body that Strahan had exceeded her limit of expenditures.

The Associated Student Body of Ole Miss has created the ASB Code and Constitution. Within this code and constitution, it explains the campaigning rules and regulations, and it also explains the rules regarding expenditures. According to the constitution of the Associated Student Body, the spending limits for Miss Ole Miss, Homecoming Queen, and Colonel Reb is $600. When the candidate is certified, certifying officials will issue three expense vouchers, on which all the candidates will state campaigning expenditures, and will attach all receipts necessary. Any omission, falsification, distortion, or misrepresentation on the required voucher

by the candidate or any of his agents shall automatically disqualify the candidate from the election or from the assuming the office or honor.

The expense reports, which candidates submit to the Elections Commission Chair, must include the valid receipts for all campaign expenses incurred on or before the Monday preceding the first primary for that report, and all expenses incurred throughout the campaign for the second expense report, including the firm or person from whom campaign materials were purchased or donated. Copies of the candidate’s receipts must be stapled to the expense voucher in an orderly manner. Any candidate whose campaign expenses total more than the limits prescribed under law, upon proper determination of the Elections Commission Chair, will be subject to a fine equal to three times that amount of overspend. The prescribed limits are for the duration of the elections, including run-off. If the overspent amount is found to be blatant and grossly in excess of the limits 10% or more over the candidate shall be disqualified. States the constitution of the Associated Student Body.

Senior Lauren Steele from Memphis Tennessee is a member of the ASB and was on the elections committee during the time of the 2010 elections for homecoming queen. “Whenever we have campaigns we are in charge of making sure all the rules are in our code are followed.”

“If the rules are not followed then we have to seek the actions that follow per somebody breaking them.”

“Most rules that are not too significant are never brought to the election committees attention unless it is a big violation. We never actually have had somebody be disqualified in the history of campaigning until last years homecoming election.”

Last year, when the homecoming elections were going on, it was brought to the elections committee that homecoming queen candidate Douglas Strahan was found to be breaking the rules. Caleb Herod who is chief of staff on the Associated Study Body committee at Ole Miss was apart of the elections committee during last year’s election and was informed when it was brought to the committee’s attention that Strahan had violated the rules.

“When Douglas ran for homecoming queen, she was well aware of the rules and regulations concerning her expenditures. Somebody on her committee failed to turn in an invoice for flyers, and stickers or something to purchase to campaign with.”

“The committee had an invoice that was split and was failed to be turned into the elections committee. It was discovered that Strahan went over her spending limits by a simple call to the company where she purchased her stickers and flyers.”

The rules and regulations are taken very seriously during elections. And the elections committee followed their procedure by calling the stores or companies from which the candidates had purchased campaigning material. It was discovered that Strahan went over her $600 budget, and her allotted 10 percent.

Strahan was given a chance to appeal, and the judicial chair over-ruled her appeal. They found that it was not fair for Strahan to move on with the campaign because she had violated a major rule during the elections.

It was stated that Strahan was not reported to the elections committee for going over her budget. The other candidates did not report her, in order to get more votes to win. Steele says that the fact that Strahan was reported was not done by sabotage. “There is always dirty business going on in politics. The reason that the committee is there is because we took an oath in the beginning that we would follow all the rules regardless of our affiliation with it, or our personal alliances. The situation was black and white, we had to follow the rules.”