The Election Board recently received an election complaint pertaining to alleged active campaigning in a residential hall by Finance Board candidate Ishan Gomber. The complaint connected to a potential violation of the following election rule:
Rule 18: “Campaigning in the residence community is restricted by Residential Life policies, which are designed to ensure a comfortable living environment for residential students, in addition to the following instructions. Door-to-door solicitation, including knocking on residents’ doors, is prohibited. … Furthermore, active campaigning is not permitted in residential facilities and True Grit’s; only passive campaigning is allowed in these locations.”
Within election rule 5, campaigning is defined as “advertising one’s candidacy,” with active campaigning involving “direct physical, verbal engagement with people.”
The complaint alleged that Ishan “had been campaigning for SGA in the dorms” and included as evidence a screen shot from Ishan’s Instagram campaign video. After careful review of the complaint and 2026 Election Rules, the Election Board voted to open an investigation of this complaint.
Election Board ascertained that the evidence provided with this complaint was a screenshot from Ishan’s campaign video that had been posted on SGA’s Instagram account for 24 hours starting on Thursday, April 9th. The individual who submitted the complaint confirmed that they first became aware of this concern “last week.”
Per election rule 2, “Complaints must be filed by 48 hours after an alleged violation is discovered.” Since the complainant became aware of the issue on or about Friday, April 10th and did not submit a complaint until the evening of Monday, April 13th, the statute of limitations had expired. As a result, the Election Board closed their investigation without issuing sanctions.
The Election Board wants to reiterate that any student who believes that they have witnessed an Election Rules violation should report a complaint to the Election Board, remembering that complaints must be filed by 48 hours after an alleged violation is discovered OR by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, April 19th-- whichever is earliest.