SGA Election Rule Violation Complaint
The Election Board recently received an election complaint pertaining to alleged campaigning within the Pre-Law Society’s WhatsApp group by Senate candidate Sofia Cabrera. The complaint connects to a potential violation of the following election rule:
Rule 9: Requests to virtually campaign (emails, group chats, etc.) to student organizations must be sent to only the executive officers. Student organization officers must then submit an endorsement form and receive confirmation from the election chair before proceeding. Student organization officers may then choose how to proceed with endorsements/campaigning which encompasses but is not limited to: announcement of general body meeting to vote regarding endorsement, result of voting on endorsements made via voting of officers only, and campaign pitches led by candidate at general meetings. Executive officers may post your pitch for you in their respective communication channels, no candidate may do it on their own in that channel.
9.1: If a candidate is an officer in an organization, they may not post their campaigning content in the communication channels. Other officers may once an endorsement has been received and approved. As a related note, all candidates received the following reminder via email from the Election Board Chair on Tuesday, April 7th: “Remember that active campaigning concluded [sic] this Saturday at 11:59pm. While you can share the link with students and explain how to vote, you are only allowed to campaign in a passive way for the duration of election week.
After careful review of the complaint and 2026 Election Rules, the Election Board voted to open an investigation of this complaint.
The Election Board obtained a screen shot showing that Sofia posted in the Pre-Law Society WhatsApp, “…I am currently running for senate reelection, I would really appreciate yalls [sic] vote…” Election Board confirmed that the Pre-Law Society had not issued an endorsement for Sofia. As a result of this information, Election Board voted that Sofia had violated Rule 9 and imposed the following sanctions:
- A 24-hour suspension of campaigning on Sofia’s campaign accounts, starting from 12:01am on April 16th until 12:01 on April 17th
- The posting of an Election Board-approved statement acknowledging the violation and recognizing the misconduct.
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.