Ignorance no excuse for misleading, illegal ads

Published: Thursday, May 11, 1995

By Matt Weathers

When Marwa Kilani and I filed a Judicial Board case last week against the Students First slate for what we perceived to be lying to voters and delegitimizing the endorsement process, we did not believe the violations were severe enough to warrant invalidating elections.

Our main concern surrounded the fact that voters rely on campaign literature and endorsement slips to make informed decisions. When candidates give out information that could mislead voters, a truly democratic election can not take place. Given some new evidence Monday evening, the J-Board agreed that violations occurred and that last Thursday's election results should stand.

Undergraduate students association president-elect York Chang and his repeated denial that Students First candidates did nothing wrong is amusing. As far back as fall quarter, Chang knew that non-endorsing groups may not endorse and that according to the Elections Code, such advertisements were illegal. Council minutes reveal that this issue was clarified in the fall.

Every candidate is responsible for reading the Elections Code. Ignorance is never an excuse. And in our view, this is not the only time that this group of students has abused the electoral process. In the special election for facilities earlier this year, Jioni Palmer paid for an advertisement that illegally exceeded his expense account.

Some candidates also pretend not to understand the significance of endorsements, saying "It's just a word." Each candidate sits through up to six hours of "endorsement" hearings, often passes out "endorsement" slips and an entire section of the Elections Code is titled "endorsements."

I find it hard to believe that the candidates were not aware of the misleading nature of the Bruin Democrats ad.

In my view, this Judicial Board decision does not violate the freedom of speech. Sanctioning candidates for their violations of Elections Board codes is not censorship or regulation and would be upheld in a court of law. The facts are simple. There is no prior restraint of what is placed in advertisements, endorsement slips or campaign literature. No one edits a candidate's message. Candidates can choose to lie to voters, but they risk being sanctioned in the election process.

Rather than asking Marwa and I to "apologize" for bringing the issue into the open, perhaps York Chang should learn his own Elections Code. He certainly knew about it in the fall. It's kind of interesting how memory forgets those discussions.

Weathers, a member of the Undergraduate Students Association Council Judicial Board, is a senior majoring in economics/business.