It appears the SGA elections could spell trouble for one campaign.
This afternoon, an election violation was submitted against the Cortez/Rachel Campaign for alleged bribery.
According to the violation, submitted by Fernando Gonzales, the Cortez/Rachel campaign required students to vote before getting any of the food offered. The SGA election rules state that campaigns must give the food out, for free, to any student whether they vote or not, according to the violation submission.
Both campaigns have been giving out food from places like Dominos, Tenders, and Wackadoo’s during campaigning, however, Gonzales honed in on the process of Wackadoos being distributed by the Cortez/Rachel campaign.
Like Us For UCF News Updates on Facebook: “Even more troubling was how institutionalized the vote for food system was in their campaign,” the violation paperwork states. “Again the caveat was that students have to vote in order to receive food, but this time to ensure students complied with the request, they gave out tickets to every student that voted at their station. Without a ticket, students were prohibited from receiving food from Wackadoos.”
See video of both sides giving out free food on day 1, and Brill’s comments about it:
We contacted Cortez Whatley about the alleged violation and he issued this statement: “We are focusing on the positive aspects of campaigning right now and will deal with the violation at the proper time and matter…I do not feel that we have violated any portions of statutes.”
KnightNews.com received a statement from Supervisor of Elections Hannah Fraher about the situation.
“The Election Commission follows all processes in regards to violation hearings that are outlined in statutes,” Fraher said. “All violation hearings are open to the public and we will make sure to post the information pertaining to them on our Elections bulletin board once they are scheduled.”
KnightNews.com has received reports from sources close to the situation that a hearing may be scheduled on April 6 to discuss the case.
Keep checking back for updates regarding this matter.
View the submitted documents below for a more detailed description of the accused matter:
