Brandon Wallingford received his second electoral offence of the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) election campaign Feb. 10 for his use of Facebook — a ruling Wallingford said he’ll appeal.
The written notice of Wallingford’s offence, posted on CUSA’s election website, states that Wallingford violated section 12.7 of CUSA’s electoral code by inviting students to a Facebook page promoting his campaign before he invited CUSA’s chief electoral officer (CEO) Sean Finn. The code mandates that all campaign material must be approved by the CEO.
Online campaigning is governed by the electoral code in the same way as physical campaign material, so the CEO must approve of all online campaign material and be made an administrator to any Facebook pages if possible, according to the CUSA candidate handbook, which was cited in the text of the violation.
Wallingford, who’s running for re-election as a Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) councillor, said he thinks he followed the rules, adding he doesn’t see the problem that led to the violation. He said he made Finn an administrator on his pre-existing 2011-2012 councillor page when it was still named “Brandon Wallingford, CUSA Councilor & Student Senator.”
He said he followed the procedure outlined in a phone call he had with the electoral office. First, he was to send a link to his page for Finn to “like.” Next, Wallingford said he had to make Finn an administrator to the page.
Wallingford said he followed the steps, then changed the page name to “Brandon Wallingford, for FASS Councilor.”
“In my opinion, the CEO ‘liking’ the page and accepting the administratorship of the page is an indication that they accepted that it was acceptable,” he said. “Otherwise, they would have said something at that point instead of four days later.”
As this is Wallingford’s second electoral offence, he’ll be ineligible for a refund of any money he spent on campaign expenses if the offence stands, according to CUSA’s electoral code. Wallingford faces disqualification from the race if he’s issued with another violation.
Wallingford received his first violation, which he said he’s also appealing, Feb. 9 for violating section 12.20 of the electoral code, requiring candidates “to campaign in a fair and respectable fashion, as defined by the Carleton University Human Rights Code.”
The offence cited Facebook posts made under Wallingford’s name, in which he posted on an unofficial CUSA group asking students not to campaign in the group, asked a poll question about the election and posted a message about current CUSA executives and presidential candidate Sarah Cooper.
Wallingford said he spoke with Equity Services and he doesn’t think he violated Carleton’s human rights code.
Finn could not be reached for comment.
Another FASS councillor candidate, Deanna Walker, also received an electoral violation Feb. 10 in a separate, unrelated notice posted to CUSA’s election website.
It’s Walker’s first offence, which serves as an official warning. There are 20 candidates running for seven FASS seats on council.
The CUSA elections campaign period runs from Feb. 8-14, followed by two polling days Feb. 15-16. Results are expected to be announced Feb. 17.
— More to come.
