Undergraduate Student Government election candidates must now submit complaints about the election process to the USG Elections Court instead of the elections commissioner, despite the commissioner's objection.

Due to a motion passed at Tuesday night's USG Senate meeting, election commissioners cannot interfere with any candidate bringing a complaint to the elections court.

Senate President Ron Marlow -- who made the motion -- said Elections Commissioner Brian Kocher will be informed of the motion and disciplinary action will be taken if he does not follow it.

Marlow said Kocher should not recommend candidates come to him rather than the court because it is tampering with the adjudication process.

Kocher said he was recommending candidates speak to him first to simplify things, but the elections code allows candidates to go to the court first if they choose to do so.

"There are seven tickets and 14 candidates," Kocher said. "That means there could be complaint upon complaint upon complaint -- a big mess. The best way to solve a case is out of court, one-on-one."

He added that last year all complaints were settled through the commission.

Marlow made the motion in response to comments made by Kocher to candidates, strongly recommending they seek his advice before contacting the court, and also because of a speech made by former town Senator Don Wonderling during open student forum.

"He (Kocher) simply integrated a policy which violates any possibility to justice being done in this election," Wonderling said. "According to the code, any candidate can invoke the court. There is no stipulation that it has to go through the commission or head commissioner for their approval."

Wendy Goldstein, publicity and debates commissioner, said Wonderling misinterpreted what Kocher was saying.

"Brian would be an arbitrator," she said. He would not make a decision.

The elections court, composed of five members appointed by the executives and consent from the senate, will handle all cases of election violations for any office in USG or any subordinate level of government.

The original jurisdiction of the Election's Court may be invoked by the Election's Commission or any candidate for USG office.

Most candidates said they would not feel uncomfortable going to Kocher with complaints.

Senators had differing opinions about the motion.

One senator said since the senate elected Kocher, it should trust him.

"If we trusted Brian enough to approve him then why can't we trust him to run elections," said town Senator Henry Kohnlein.

He added that there was no debate on the motion and it was passed due to the late hour.