Friday, March 27, 1998
Campaign fined $40 for election violation
A candidate for Undergraduate Student Government president was found guilty last night of an election violation and sentenced to a $40 fine by the USG Supreme Court.Mario Ciabarra (junior-science) was accused of campaigning early via his World Wide Web site. Both Ciabarra and the Elections Commission presented their augments, which were first introduced in an Elections Court hearing March 18.
The USG Supreme Court re-heard charges of Ciabarra's election
code violation because the elections court had been unable to
decide on its sentence earlier this week due to the resignation
of chief justice Duane Gildea.
Ciabarra's representative at the hearing, Jason Covener (senior-international
politics), continually argued that the section of the election
code Ciabarra allegedly violated is vague and murky and that Ciabarra
had limited knowledge of election procedures.
"Ignorance is no defense, especially in USG elections,"
said Beth Silvia, special prosecutor of the commission.
Silvia resubmitted many pieces of evidence at last night's hearing,
including copies of Ciabarra's Web site printed on February 16,
one month prior to the day candidates were officially allowed
to campaign.
--by Tim Swift
