Class of 2020 Election Regulations

Transcription

1 Class of 2020 Election Regulations Only first-year students of the Undergraduate Student Body with under 24 hours may run for, apply, or be elected as a Class of 2020 Representative within the Student Government Association Any member of the Student Government Association whose cumulative grade point average falls below 2.5, or who withdraws or graduates from the university will be considered as having resigned his or her position. General Campaign Rules/Dos and Don ts 1. Campaigning is any public action initiated by either a candidate or a member of a candidate s campaign staff to persuade members of the student body to vote for or against one or more candidate. a. Candidates are responsible for the actions of their campaign staff, defined as any TCU student who has the consent of the candidate to execute a responsibility that works to promote and/or garner votes for the candidate. 2. You can only campaign during the campaign period, which will begin Tuesday, September 6 th at 8:00am. 3. General Campaigning Rules: a. Campaigning is allowed anywhere on campus, but only on campus (includes materials, debates, rallies, etc). If you want to campaign in residence halls, you must have permission of the respective hall director. b. Posters may only be placed on stakes or university bulletin boards and they must be no larger than 520 square inches. They may not be placed on windows, doors, walls, sidewalks, streetlights, benches or any other university property. Signs or posters from YOUR campaign may not be placed within 5 ft of each other. c. A candidate can speak at student organization meetings with the approval of the organization s president or equivalent. Candidates may contact a president before the campaign period starts as long as they don t state the specific position they are running for. d. Wearing costumes and other campaign apparel, organizing rallies (with notification to the Elections and Regulations Chair), distributing flyers and other promotional items, buying advertising in campus or online

2 publications, creating websites, and utilizing social media are all permissible and encouraged campaign methods. e. No unsolicited s, phone calls, or mailings. You can ask for students contact information in person but you cannot use TCU Announce or other mailing lists that are not created for the explicit purpose of campaigning. In other words, you must have the explicit prior permission of the recipient. f. Endorsements will be limited to student organizations and they may only assist in garnering votes for a candidate by means of endorsement. An endorsement form, supplied by the Elections and Regulations Committee, must be completed by the leadership of an organization and submitted to the E&R Chair before public disclosure of the endorsement. 4. Election day restrictions: a. You cannot campaign within 50 ft of a grouping of 3 or more computers (excluding residence halls). b. You cannot create your own voting booths candidates, campaign staffs or staff surrogates soliciting votes with or support from any electronic devices which a student may cast a vote or access the polling portal. 5. Clean up campaign materials must be removed by 5:00PM on September 12 th Campaign Expenses Candidates are limited to $ spending for the campaign. All candidates should keep their receipts and be prepared to submit those to the E&R Chair in the event that questions arise regarding campaign expenses. If no receipts are provided, all items will be charged at fair market value.

3 Campaign Violations/Appeal Process Any candidate who willfully : o Exceeds the campaign spending limits; o Misstates campaign expenses; o Uses campaign methods not covered in the Election Code; o Violates the University Code of Student Conduct or other applicable university and SGA policies; o Engages in any form of negative campaigning including defamation of character, libel, or slander against other candidates or members of the Elections and Regulations Committee and removing or altering an opponent s campaign materials or materials published by the Elections and Regulations Committee; o Roaming with electronic devices with the intent of soliciting votes is prohibited and will render the candidate susceptible to penalties as determined by the Elections and Regulations Committee. o The reporting and enforcing of violations (and appeal process) will proceed through the following steps: 1. Violations will be reported to the 2. E&R will commence an investigation and/or conduct hearings on the alleged violation(s) no later than 15 days after the alleged violation occurred. In the case of a confirmed violation, E&R will impose fines/sanctions. 3. The Judicial Board will act as an appellate court for election violation decisions contested by the sanctioned candidate. Appealed decisions pertinent to elections must be made within 48 hours. If the Judicial Board does not meet, the E&R decision stands. Results To win a position, a candidate must receive an absolute majority of the votes cast. If no candidate for an office or position receives an absolute majority of the votes cast for that office, then a run-off shall be held between the two candidates receiving the most votes, on the day(s) set by the Elections and Regulations Committee Chair. All candidates for positions will be informed of the results of the election on the morning of September 10 th. Results of all elections, including vote counts will be posted and released to TCUaffiliated media after all candidates have been informed of the results of the elections.

4 The Elections and Regulations Committee Chair will read the results of the election into the minutes at the first House meeting following the completion of the election. Oath. The Speaker of the House shall take the oath of all newly elected representatives at the regular House meeting directly following the election. The oath shall be as follows: I (state your name) do most solemnly and sincerely swear to faithfully serve the students of Texas Christian University, to represent the interests of my constituency and the student body as a whole and to maintain and uphold the constitution of the student body, so help me God. o The religious reference may be omitted at the request of the representative taking the oath. Appendix

5 Fair Market Values The following prices are in effect for all campaign expenses. Candidates must use the following prices for their expense report. 8½ x 11 Black and White Copy $0.08/side 8½ x 11 Color Copy $0.49/side 11 x 17 Black and White Copy $0.17/side 11 x 17 Colors Copy $0.79/side Lamination White T-Shirt, 1 Color Print, Front & Back $0.25/sheet $5.50 each White T-Shirt with Manual Writing $2.00 each (Supplies used to color or write on shirts must be listed separately) Wooden Stake Metal Stake Web Site Design (by another person) Outside of TCU Web Space TCU Web Space $0.35 each $2.00 each $21.00 each $9.00 each Free You must keep all receipts to turn into the Elections & Regulations (E&R) Committee with Finance if no receipt then you need to turn in a statement of the market value to the committee. Note that all market values will be validated with the E&R Committee.