Newly elected CUSG Inspire ticket could be disqualified for election infractions

CU Student Government recently wrapped up its closest election in—at least—the past five years with a 92 vote divide between the two leading tickets, Inspire and Unity. Last Friday, April. 8, CUSG’S Election Commission published the Spring 2022 elections. And while the results may appear finalized, there is speculation about who will lead the powerful organization next year. 

Inspire, a ticket composed of three students, Milan Enayat, Andrew Harvey and Ben Lansbury were running together for the three student body president positions in the executive branch. Last week, Harvey announced his resignation from the ticket, after he was made aware of his ineligibility due to violation of CU’s student conduct last year. Despite Harvey’s resignation, the team still came up first, with 2361 votes. Nick Monroy and Julia Brehm, also from the Inspire ticket, won two out of the four Representative-at-Large positions. 

From the voting perspective, the election ended Friday. However, by the time voting period came to an end, three infractions were filed against the Inspire ticket. 

The Unity ticket which consists of Chloe Nicklas, Lucie Nguyen, and Rachel Hill received 2269 votes leaving them in second place. Christine Nguyen and Sally Webster from the Unity ticket were elected Representative-at-Large. The Amplify ticket composed of Hope James, Arthur Didinsky, and Chyna Varner received 492 votes. 

An infraction is the violation of CUSG election codes and/or bylaws by a candidate. The infractions are mainly listed in chapter seven of the CUSG Election Code. There are different violations which equal different violation points. If a ticket is found guilty of violating 12 infraction points, they will be disqualified. The tickets and all other independent candidates were given until Saturday, April 9 at 8 p.m. to file any and all violation allegations against other candidates or tickets. 

The Tribunal is set to take place this Friday, April 15. Their decision is required to be made public 48 hours after the tribunal ends. Meaning, the public can expect results by Sunday night. 

When an infraction is filed against a ticket, it goes to CUSG’s tribunal court. The tribunal court is composed of three Justices from CUSG’s Judicial branch, and are appointed by the current tri-executives and ratified by the legislative council. The tribunal reviews, discusses and makes a decision on the particular infraction. 

“The dilemma is that there were a couple of different infraction complaints that were submitted [against the Inspire ticket],” said Tom Anderson, the Election Commissioner of CUSG. 

The Amplify ticket filed the first infraction against the Inspire ticket.

Amplify alleged that the Inspire ticket continued to use Harvey, a former Inspire Tri-Executive candidate, in campaign marketing materials despite Harvey not being able to run. 

The Inspire ticket announced they found out Harvey was ineligible to run for CUSG office on Tuesday, April 1 after the candidates participated in a town-hall style debate on Wednesday, March 30. The Amplify ticket alleged that Inspire broke section 408.2 of the Election code, making the claim that Inspire was misleading voters by including Harvey in campaign posts. 

The code states, “Once a candidate issues their intent to withdraw, they shall be removed from or not placed on the ballot and shall not be included in any advertisements or election events.”

The second and third infraction violation filed against Inspire came from the Unity ticket. The first complaint filed by Unity against Inspire alleged that Inspire had committed bribery. 

“[Unity claims they] have some screenshots which they believe show that Inspire has committed bribery by offering students various incentives to advertise for them and to hand out flyers for them,” Anderson said. 

Bribery is a 12 point violation which means that if Inspire is found guilty of this charge, they will be disqualified. 

“Bribery is defined as a present or a gift in order to influence the vote for or against a particular candidate or ticket,” Anderson said. 

 Section 702.5 of the Election Code states, “Bribing, conspiring with, falsely claiming an endorsement of, or otherwise corruptly influencing a member of the Election Commission, an Infraction Tribunal judge, an Appellate Court Justice., or any other person involved with the operation of any CUSG election.” 

Finally, the third infraction allegation made against Inspire is the accusation of intimidation.

“It’s an argument that the people who are out campaigning for Inspire, that are not you know, on the ticket, they’re not those campaign advisers, were intimidated in [to] doing so,” Anderson said. “The documentation alleges that Inspire intimidated pledges fraternity that exists in Boulder. And so that’s where the allegation stems from. That’s the group that Unity believes was intimidated by Inspire,” he added.  

When asked if the fraternity is affiliated with the University, Anderson confirmed that the fraternity is not affiliated with CU.

The Unity and Amplify ticket denied commenting on the matter at this time and the Inspire ticket has not responded to our request for an interview. 

It is unclear if the representative-at-large candidates from the Inspire ticket will be impacted if the Inspire ticket is found guilty of any of these charges. According to Anderson, it all depends on the tribunal court. 

“The infraction tribunal has the ability to decide who they hold accountable on the ticket,” Anderson said. “If they choose, they can hold everyone [on the ticket]  accountable. They could disqualify exclusively the tri-executive candidates or they could disqualify just representative candidates.” 

Candidates have the opportunity to appeal to CUSG’s appellate court if the tribunal court disqualifies them. 

This is a developing story. The Bold plans to monitor the results of the tribunal meeting and publish the outcome.

Editor’s Note: One of the contributing reporters on this story, Suvu Singh is a former CUSG member. Though Singh’s formal relationship with CUSG ended in December 2021, The Bold felt it was best to disclose this information as we value transparency and believe our readers do as well.