The UMBC SGA Election Board recently received notification of an improper campaigning effort in UMBC residential hall groupMe's.
The post was found to violate 2020 UMBC SGA Election Rules on unsolicited campaign emails/messaging and permissable campaigning methods in protected UMBC areas. Thus, the Election Board requires the message to be removed/hidden in the groupMe.
In addition, the Election Board has determined that Pooja Patel, as well as any and all representatives, will be prohibited from campaigning in any form for 48 hours. The prohibition applies to all forms of campaigning as outlined in the Election Rules. The candidate and their representatives may resume campaigning no earlier than 1:30pm ET on Friday, April 17, 2020.
While we understand that virtual passive campaigning is difficult in that realm, we require that any SGA Election material must be posted by an unbiased, authoritative party in the groupMe which we have recognized as the RA. If you would like your virtual flyers posted there, you must privately request that the RA post the general SGA Election information (dates, methods/links for voting, etc all provided by you and your representatives), the general SGA Election flyer (see thumbnail), and then your own campaign flyer.
The RA's are NOT allowed to tell them to vote for any specific candidate when posting this information and thus serves as an effective proxy bulletin board which you previously would have had the RA's post your flyers on. The RA and any campaigns may not interact with the groupMe post outside of providing general election information.
The Election Board reminds candidates and their campaign representatives to reference the Election Rules to ensure that their actions are within election guidelines.
Direct any and all questions to the SGA Election Chair, Caleb Cagle.
The 2020 SGA Elections will be held Monday, April 20 to Friday, April 24. Add the election dates to your calendar here