Cheating accusations taint SGA elections

Allegations of cheating were raised against Jessica Lee, the newly elected Monroe Park Campus Student Government Association president, at a judicial review meeting Wednesday.

Lee’s opponents, William C. Moehl and Clint Titsworth, said Lee allowed her running mate to forge her signature, distributed fliers designed to look like parking tickets and illegally campaigned in and around the James Branch Cabell Library.

But Lee dismissed the charges as politics.

“I think the whole thing was just a political ploy,” Lee said. “I personally wish we could stop bickering and stop fighting.”

At Wednesday’s meeting, the board determined that instead of being disqualified, Lee must make a public apology at the Commons Theater for her behavior.

Moehl, who finished in second place, said the board’s decision was politically motivated and does not reflect the severity of Lee’s offenses.

“If I had a fair election, I would have bowed out,” Moehl said. “If there were minor grievances, I would have accepted them.”

Moehl said he plans to appeal the judicial review board’s decision. According to SGA rules, he has a week to present new information to the board to justify a new ruling.

Stephanie Kinard, vice chair of the senate and chair of elections, estimates the following results for the SGA elections:
Jessica Lee: 908 votes
William C. Moehl: 527 votes
Clint Titsworth: 320 votes

Rebecca Imholt, chief justice of the judicial review board, said the decision not to disqualify Lee resulted because she was found guilty of only one charge. Moehl, Imholt said, had originally filed six charges, three of which he dropped.

“It was a unanimous decision on the part of the board,” Imholt said. “It came down to the fact that there was only one violation they were found guilty of, and the most fair and balanced course of action would not be to disqualify.”

Lee said allegations of cheating were either exaggerated or false.

One of the accusations – that she manufactured fake parking tickets and distributed them on cars parked on Main Street – is punishable as a felony, and therefore was deemed outside the board’s jurisdiction.

“I don’t think they (the fliers) looked like a parking ticket,” Lee said.

Lee was found guilty of allowing her vice presidential candidate, Emad Maghsoudi, to forge her signature on a packet submitted by the candidates to the SGA.

While Moehl and Titsworth said the signature is further evidence of Lee’s ambivalence to the rules, Lee attributes car trouble. She said that when her car broke down and she was unable to sign the document herself, she empowered her running mate to sign for her.

Lee also speculated the other candidates strategically chose to withhold their knowledge of the signature until after the election.

“The fact that they chose not to talk to me about that seems suspicious,” Lee said.

Moehl and Titsworth also said Lee lied to the judicial review board when she testified she never was asked to leave James Branch Cabell Library. According to election bylaws, libraries are off-limits for campaigning.

Moehl said he produced a signed affidavit to the judicial review board in which a security officer employed at the library testified he asked Lee to leave. Lee maintains she never was asked to leave the library. If any member of her campaign was asked to leave, she said, they have not discussed the incident with her.

Stephanie Kinard is the vice chair of the senate and chair of elections. Kinard said she specifically told the candidates in a meeting not to approach students entering or leaving the library, as well.

Students had complained to the SGA about harassment, Kinard said.

“There were things I asked people not to do, and they went against my wishes,” Kinard said.

At the judicial review meeting, Kinard said, Lee testified that she interpreted Kinard’s request as advice. The elections bylaws do not prohibit campaigning outside the library, so technically, Lee could not be punished for ignoring Kinard’s request.

Other complaints against Lee by Moehl and Titsworth include stapling fliers on top of other candidates’ fliers, obstructing walkways and using personal relationships within the judicial review board to avoid disqualification.

Lee said she did not commit any of these offenses, and no one from her campaign has confessed to dirty campaigning, either. Lee also said she is tired of people assuming everyone in the SGA is friends.

“I got to the place I am because of hard work,” Lee said.

Imholt, who said she is friends with both Lee and Moehl, said accusations that her personal relationships with the candidates affected the judicial review board’s decision are unfounded.

“I’ve managed to maintain impartiality on the issue,” Imholt said.

Titsworth, who came in third, has decided to resign from his position as director of technology services for the SGA because of the controversy surrounding Lee’s win.

“I don’t feel right working in an organization that says the end justifies the means,” Titsworth said. “If they (Lee’s campaign) are guilty, a public apology is just a slap on the wrist and a slap in the face to me and Will.”

Josh Learn, Titsworth’s vice presidential running mate, said he thinks the judicial review board avoided setting a precedent by minimizing Lee’s punishment, and without a precedent, dirty campaigning will continue.

“There’s nothing you can do to get disqualified, short of pushing (VCU President Eugene P.) Trani in front of a bus,” Learn said.

Titsworth, Moehl and Lee said that at the beginning of the race, they met and agreed they were going to run clean campaigns. Moehl said Lee’s campaign grew more desperate as the election neared. Holding a new election is the best option, he said.

“Playing fair means being honorable, but losing,” Moehl said. “Unless students take initiative, they (dirty campaigns) are going to continue.”

Lee insists her campaign was clean and that she won because she talked to students about their needs. She also said Moehl and Titsworth did not approach her with their complaints, leading her to think their charges are petty and opportunistic.

“The student body has spoken,” Lee said. “I really wish we could have more focus on the issues.”

Kinard aims to clarify election bylaws for next year’s election, she said, to avoid future controversy.

“We are a very serious organization,” Kinard said. “I don’t want people to get the wrong impression of SGA based on this election.”

The SGA appropriated about $500,000 during the 2006-2007 school year, which is accumulated through student activity fees. SGA executive positions, such as SGA president, are paid for by student activity fees.