SGA Election Violation Dispute: A Timeline of Events

Khan said they listed their remedies as the potential disqualification of the FSBA bloc, due to section 5.14A of the SGA election code.  If not, they requested Experience Where It Counts be banned from campaigning for the rest of the election and the immediate disqualification of Attaluri.

“If he did know everyone in that class, he would personally have reached out and contacted each of them in a way that wouldn’t have elicited a possibility for a complaint by another team if he was caught  with those allegations,” Khan said.

Gunn said teams cannot ask for the immediate disqualification of another team.

“That irked me when I saw that. They could have been out campaigning when this was going on, and we hadn’t even made a decision,” Gunn said.

4:26 p.m.: Gunn said the election commission received an email from Connect Tech inquiring about a perceived violation.

Gunn said Connect Tech sent a complaint against Experience Where It Counts, also known as FSBA, concerning an email. Then, he said he contacted Vivian Cervantez, the election commission chairwoman to set up a hearing. She called him back shortly after saying it would not be possible to gather everyone together until next week, and it was decided they would put forth an advisory opinion.

Approx. 6:15 p.m.: Attaluri said Cervantez notified Experience Where It Counts that a complaint had been filed against them, and she was working on an advisory opinion.

Approx. 7:00 p.m.: Attaluri said Cervantez called back saying it was her opinion that the situation in question constituted “spamming” unless FSBA could establish a relationship with those students. After the relationship was proven, Attaluri said Cervantez asked FSBA to prove the students wanted the email.

Approx. 8:00 p.m.: Gunn said the commission sent a moratorium on all FSBA’s social media postings, email and other various communications. Attaluri said his team’s campaign managers asked Cervantez the social media stipulations, and she said there could be no promotions of the executive candidates. He said she did not specify if they had to take down their social media or not.

In response to the decision, Khan said:

“I personally feel that the decision from the commission could have been a little bit more severe because it was a rule that was broken. As a student and as a student government affiliate and leader, I stand for democracy, and as a student, whenever I did bring this issue on the table, I didn’t intend to attack another team. I feel the students should know when the biggest rule or the most bottom rule should be broken because this is an election. These are gonna be leaders leading the entire student body. They deserve to know everything about what is going on, whether it be a breaking of the rule or a bend in the rule.”

Gunn said this situation was an innocent mistake, but the team still had to be held accountable.

8:50 p.m.: The Daily Toreador reporter Diego Gaytan contacted Experience Where It Counts’ presidential candidate, Tyler Frevert, with inquiries about an alleged  violation of the SGA election code.

9:00 p.m.: The FSBA bloc campaigned to a student organization.

9:30 p.m.: FSBA called The DT.

Melissa Brisco, one of the FSBA campaign mangers, said their campaign members did not respond to the Daily Toreador when requested for the comment late Wednesday night, because they was confusion of the situation to which they were referring.

According to Brisco, members of the Connect Tech bloc released information to the DT without communicating any complaints or concerns to the members of the Experience Where It Counts bloc. After ending the phone call, he said they immediately contacted Mike Gunn and Vivian Cervantez, the election commission chairwoman.

9:40 p.m.: Brisco said Connect Tech’s campaign manager Mark Khan called Experience Where It Counts informing them that his team planned to file for FSBA’s disqualification. Attaluri said they received notification from Khan and Cervantez that Connect Tech was filing for disqualification because FSBA had not taken down their social media, but FSBA worked out the confusion with Cervantez and Gunn.

10:00 p.m.: Gunn said there was a series of communication up until 10 p.m, and in the end, it was determined FSBA would be in compliance if any reference to their executive candidates was removed on all social media by this morning. He said it was a minor offense, and he thinks FSBA did a good job. The senators can still do anything within the SGA guidelines to help their team, he said.

10:40 p.m.: The Daily Toreador tweeted the news about Connect Tech bloc filing a complaint against Experience Where It Counts bloc for allegedly violating section 6.08 of the SGA Election Code.

10:48 p.m.: Brisco called the DT back to provide a comment from FSBA.

Attaluri said campaign manager Melissa Brisco tried to reach out to the DT to give them anything they needed, but FSBA did not feel the DT provided them a chance to open conversation from their side of the story.

Thursday, Feb. 27, 12:37 a.m.: Publication of an online article on The Daily Toreador’s website about Connect Tech’s complaint filing with the SGA election commission, including a copy of the email in question.

2:34 a.m.: Melissa Brisco responded with a statement to the HUB@TTU via e-mail explaining their side of the story.

Additionally, Brisco said that during the campaign Experience Where It Counts has communicated with all running teams when there were concerns or complaints about the variety of “spamming” situations, during the campaign. Brisco said she feels the members of Connect Tech failed to return the courtesy of professional communication.

Attaluri said they did not take down their social media sites because they wanted to speak with Gunn first about how they thought the penalty was unfair. He said the potential reach they would lose did not qualify as an incident that only reached 15 other people. Gunn told them today they could still use their campaign slogans and sites but must remove anything that relates to the executive candidates individually because he thought the original sanctions were unfair, he said.

SGA President Luke Cotton released this statement regarding the situation:

“On behalf of the SGA officers right now, we just want to convey our disappointment with the filings that are happening right now. I think it’s kind of misrepresenting all the parties, and we feel that the election process should be more so focused on the positivity of what the candidates want to bring to campus, rather than negativity and misrepresentation of facts to somewhat hurt someone’s name, and we feel that this is more something that goes on at Washington D.C. or in Austin, Texas, where you misrepresent, and you basically slam campaign a candidate, and we feel that with student government, it should be more so focused on, you know, what the students can bring to campus, positivity-type things, instead of focusing on hurting someone’s name, and I think that all these teams that are taking extra time out of their campaign hours are precious hours that we only have about seven and a half left  to go to speak to the media about an incident that happened yesterday, and it’s already been resolved last night. That they are wasting their valuable time campaigning to go hurt another team’s name, and I don’t agree with that at all. If they really want to win, they need to be out there speaking with students instead of the cameras.”

Watch here for Connect Tech campaign manager Mark Khan’s side of the story:

Watch here for graduate vice president candidate for Experience Where It Counts Pradeep Attaluri’s side of the story:

 

The third bloc in the election, One Tech, did not have a comment about the situation.

 

Evan Dixon, Abbie Arroyos, Roxie Bustamante and Lauren Estlinbaum contributed to this report.