Crystal Clear News, Views and Reviews

Issue date: 2/6/08 Section: Blast From the Past

Media Credit: DanaRose Crystal Leticia Mayorga, Sarah Martin, David Adame and Kendra Maestas await their decision with heavy hearts.

FULLERTON, Calif. --Tues., May 21, 2007


The disputed election results appear to have been decided. David Adame is out; and Ethan Morse is in.

The 2007 Associated Students spring election was marred by scandal when the A.S. Election Committee ruled the wins by David Adame for A.S. President, Sarah Martin for Inter-Club Council President and Leticia Mayorga for Senator to be invalidated, due to having been cited with two campaign violations apiece. According to A.S. Election regulations, two violations are grounds for disqualification. At the candidates' pre-election information briefing, Jonathan Mayer, the sitting president, had given a small pep-talk to those present. His words now seem prescient:


"Whatever you do, don't commit any violations. It really sucks when you get disqualified over a little thing," he said. Mayer went on to say that it does happen rarely, and he didn't want any of the candidates to suffer disappointment after a hard-fought win.


Such did occur in this year's election. Candidates Adame, Martin and Kendra Maestas --all members of the Lambda Society club, along with their friend, Mayorga -- decided to pool resources and run "together." The A.S. elections do not, in truth, have such a thing as "running mates" nor a "ticket." All candidates are voted upon as individuals. However, pooling resources is advantageous in that candidates place all their names on a posters, flyers and cards together, and it becomes a great savings of time and energy with all members taking turns passing out and posting literature, as well as cross-promoting each other to interested voters. On the other hand, the more people who are involved, the more difficult it becomes to keep track of everything that is going on. That was exactly what torpedoed the team of A.M.M.M.: one forgotten joint campaign poster.
A.S. regulations state that all campaign materials must be removed before a certain deadline, and this one had slipped the memory of the team. Because all the candidates' names were on it, all were issued a citation for campaign violation.
Strike one.

Strike two occurred when the team filed its financial statement as a team, instead of individually, as stated in the election regulations. Each candidate is mandated to list every expense used in his/her campaign, and attach all receipts. If donated or existing material is used, the estimated cost must be tallied and listed as well. Instead of each of the Lambda team filing separately, Maestas --running for the office of vice president --had filed all expenses under her name, for the team. If Maestas had won her office, there is still a question as to whether or not she would also be disqualified, since technically, she might only have one violation ( the poster ), but she had filed a financial statement.


Martin was allowed another chance when Darlene Jensen, advisor to both A.S. and ICC, had offered a solution in the form of advice, when ICC held elections for the office of vice president: she informed Martin that in the event that the elected ICC President was disqualified or unable to serve, the Vice President would assume that office. As a result, Martin accepted a nomination for vice president, and was elected, therefore her position as ICC President was assured.


However, Martin did not want to leave her friend Adame all alone, swinging in the breeze. Hours before the A.S. meeting the next day, she asked senators to join them in voting against approval of the election results. That way, Adame would have another week to plead his case.


The A.S. Senate meeting indeed held the bad news that the Unhappy Three were disqualified. Adame and his team asked for a reconsideration by the election committee. Arguments back and forth ensued. The vote on whether to approve the election process was taken, resulting in 12-6 against. After a bit more verbal wrangling, a couple of members decided that they wanted to change their vote. Motion was made to reopen the decision to force the election committee to reconsider. The vote was taken by roll call. When the vote came around to David Adame, his head and eyes were fixed downwards. Several seconds ticked by before he opened his mouth to say the words "I abstain." This seemed to shock a few members.


"It looked as if he gave up," one senator said. "It looked like he lost heart to fight anymore. He looked so downhearted."


With two abstentions, the vote this time was 9-7 to send the election committee back to reconsider matters dependant upon the issues and mitigating factors presented by the senate. The language of the election code had confusing and unclear wording, complained Adame. Also, a factor beyond human control had contributed to the poster being forgotten. Maestas complained that the Friday of the deadline to remove publicity, rain had poured down in buckets.


'It wasn't raining cats and dogs, it was raining elephants," Maestas said, in a later discussion of the situation. "My shoes were soaked through."



The pending disqualification may have been sour comfort to Maestas, who had been disappointed at not having netted the highest votes in the race for vice president. The initial results had been a cause for elation of Martin, with the highest individual vote-count of 245, Mayorga at 121 and Adame at 178 --all winning their offices. However Maestas fell behind, at 178 to Yasuyo Nagata's 203 for the win.




"Kendra's really feeling down. It really meant a lot to her," Adame said, days after the results. "She was really into it."



The decision of Maestas to run for vice president instead of president had surprised quite a few people. But Maestas said that she had chosen to run for vice president because she preferred working with students directly. For the Fall/Spring 2006-07 semesters, she had served as Carebank Coordinator, chairperson of the Publicity Committee and Exec Pro Tem, which is described as being a liason between the officers and the senators. It is her responsibility to give new senators an orientation and to transmit concerns and issues between them and the executive officers.



Perhaps the unhappy results hurt less than if she had won her office, only to have it ripped away. But Maestas still appeared to ache all the same, for her friends facing disqualification. Masestas expressed upset feelings with VP Laura Mata for her hard-line attitude, which was still stinging like a slap in the face a day later. She, Adame and A.S. Recorder Gloria Negrete had felt that Mata had appeared to be leaning too far in the opposite direction in order to appear neutral, since during the actual campaign, at the A.S.-sponsored forum speech on the FC campus quad Mata had been seen openly smiling, clapping and jumping up and down in support of them ( in a possible violation of election code rules which forbid election committee members to openly endorse candidates ). They all said that they thought A.S. President Jonathan Mayer ( absent, due to vacation ) would've been more neutral. Despite the pain for her friends, Negrete had found amusement in the headline of the May 2 Hornet ( FC's campus newspaper ): "Violators of Election Code Under Review."



"'The Violators!' It sounds like a rock group!" she said.



When the campaign had begun, the A.M.M.M. team had been bright and upbeat. Adame, Martin and Maestas have been close friends on a strong level throughout their time together on FC's Associated Students. The trio consider themselves a bonded team. Their respective myspace profiles sport photos and written treatesies of the three with arms and hearts entwined.



They had the backing of Lambda Society, the club which had roared back into life after a 3-year inactive status. Martin, then-president of FC's Anthropology Club, had numbers of other people supporting her campaign, including members of FC Men's basketball team. Three members had helped her campaign, and pass out flyers with the names of Martin, Adame, Maestas and Mayorga during FC's Health Fair on the final day of campaigning. The ballplayers stated that they definitely had not voted for opposing presidential candidate Ethan Morse, the crew-cut young man clad in suit and tie, who had been circling the area dotted with many booths and tables, shaking hands and chatting.



"Oh, no, that guy is whack," said one of the basketball players.



Morse was part of a two-person-team: Morse and Yasuyo Nagata had gotten together to share publicity space and to help promote each other. According to her campaign statement, Nagata arrived from Japan two years ago, barely able to speak English. She wants to study business in America --though many might believe that Japan would be THE place to attend business school, Nagata disagrees, feeling that American business schools would be better for her. She feels that to learn business "the American way" would be better in terms of relating to the global community. She has served as President of the International Business Club this year, as well as treasurer of the International Club.

During her forum speech, and in her candidate statement, Nagata had said that she would do something to increase financial aid. Asked about this, Nagata seemed not to have been talking about the federal Pell Grant, as presumed, but was referring to scholarships. Her agenda is to help remove restrictions from international students getting scholarships from the Fullerton College Foundation.



"We're not allowed to compete for scholarships because we don't pay taxes," Nagata said.



Nagata, who has a 4.0 grade-point-average, might otherwise be a serious competitor for the roughly three dozen scholarships offered by the foundation. Other international students tend to likewise have high GPAs, and might feel they deserve to put their names into the competition for scholarships.


Nagata also promised relief for students regarding reserve books at the library. One student said that he had cast his vote for her and her "running mate" Morse because she had promised to get more textbooks for the Japanese language placed into reserve. Currently, teachers who receive textbooks from manufacturers are not required to place their extra copies into the reserve section of the library. This spring, the Inter-Club Council created a proposal that would require teachers to do so. Julie Law, ICC President of 2006-07 had spearheaded the initiative, and got the ball rolling with the power of the ICC and the AS behind it. The book proposal will be in force as of Fall 2007, so those who cast votes for Nagata on this basis are likely to feel satisfied.


Morse is a first-semester student at FC, newly arrived from his home in upstate New York and a two-year stint as a sentry at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington DC. He had taken some college courses at night, though it was difficult while performing the arduous tasks of a sentry. He had a shift of one day on, one day off, where only some of that time could be used for personal down-time. It is not an exaggeration that military personnel serving as sentries are required to spend as many as 5-12 hours or more at a time in upkeep and maintainence of their uniform.



"I had to spend hours sanding down my shoes, then repolishing them to mirror-bright," Morse said. The shoes had to be coated with a full bottle of polish, otherwise the finish might chip when the soldier clicks his heels together at the pivot-point in his sentry-march of 21 steps back and forth.



"I'm only 25 years old, and I have foot problems," Morse said. "I had to rock back on my heels to get a perfect line all the way down," indicating his legs.


Morse's decision to run for president came from his frustration with FC's Campus Safety. He had been cited for parking his vehicle facing outward instead of heads-in, as specified on the sign posted on every parking area on campus, and in the handout given to every student applying for a semester parking pass. He had promised in his forum speech that he would do what he could about that situation, but upon investigating further, realized that the regulation was solid and unchangable. Weeks after the conclusion of the campaign Morse's new plan is simply to make a number of posters to warn students that they will be cited if they do not obey the Campus Safety rules.



Thursday, May 3 the election committee got together for the last time before the next Tuesday's announcement of their final decision. Morse was second in the vote-count, therefore next in line to assume the office of president, and asked to speak to the committee. Advisor Jensen allowed it, though she and the committee refused to admit anyone else, even the candidates facing disqualification. Morse showed this reporter a copy of what he read aloud to the committee--he had written a speech redolant with Americana and honor, stating that if the election code was too hard to understand, "then all of us should be disqualified." ( Of course, that would seem unfair to the two candidates for officer positions with absolutely no violations: Michelle Forte for vice president, and write-in candidate James Castaneda for Treasurer. ) Morse stated that all the candidates should obey and respect rules.



Indicating the May 2 copy of The Hornet, upon which front page blazed the headline "Violators of Election Code Under Review" Morse said "All this time, I've kept quiet, not saying anything, but after I read this I had to speak for myself."



Morse had not been present during the last senate meeting, because he had football practice at that time, so had learned most of what had occurred via the newspaper account. He seemed to feel that perhaps the refusal to validate the election process had to do with him being new and unknown to most of them.



"I don't know what the vote count was," Morse said. "They don't know me, and maybe that was why."



Perhaps he had missed the quote from ICC President Julie Law, who had stated in an email to The Hornet: "We are only looking at the election process and code here. We are not focusing on the individuals or their agenda."


Morse also seems unaware that amongst the senators who voted against validation was his own "running mate," Nagata. She said that she felt that the two violations were inadaquate as reason to disqualify the candidates, and felt a review of the case was needed.


On May 3, Morse spent 15-20 minutes with the election committee, speaking his peace. He then spent time speaking with his campaign partner, Yasuyo Nagata, who was fulfilling A.S. publicity committee hours by painting posters bidding students a happy summer vacation. Morse had just conferred with her about their joint campaign poster that had been displayed prominantly in the front window of the EOPS room -- of which he had been informed by this reporter of The Hornet ( just prior to his speech to the election committee ) as being a violation under the election code --yet for which neither had ever been cited. He claimed that he hadn't known anything about it. Nagata confirmed that it had been her decision to place the campaign poster in that window. Under the election code rules, no publicity is to be posted without prior written permission from the dean of any given building. Nagata said that she had verbal permission, and that she had only spoken to the person in the Student Affairs Office that day -- Mark Okumori, A.S. Senator. Presumedly, Administrative Assistant Les-Sie Crockrom and Office Assistant Nitzia Hamblot either were away, or perhaps not consulted. Okumori has worked in the Student Affairs office since summer 2006, and has served as vice president of the International Business Club alongside Nagata as president this year.


"I remember that very clearly," Okumori said. "She came to ask if she could publicize her campaign within one of the buildings. I told her to go over to the building dean to ask permission," he said. "I have no idea whether she did or not, but I saw her poster in the building, so I'm assuming she did."



Had he told her that she needed to get written permission?



"No I did not disclose that, because I wasn't sure," he said.



Evidently, Okumori had not read the election code as pertains this situation. But Adame, Martin, Maestas and Mayorga had.



"When I saw that poster of his, I just went, 'What?'" Adame said.



Adame had asked a person working at EOPS about the poster, who said that was the first she had heard of it --that it had "just appeared." In contrast, Adame, Maestas, Martin and Mayorga had gotten the required written permission from the dean of every building in which they either posted or displayed flyers and literature.



"It just bugs me that we got hit with all these violations, and we just let this go," Adame said. The team of A.M.M.M. had not wanted to be mean, so hadn't complained to the election committee--to their detriment; because neither Nagata nor Morse had been cited for violation, whereas otherwise they might have been in the same boat with the Unhappy Three.



Indeed, quite ironically in the same boat: a poster and financial statement might cause trouble for the Morse/Nagata team. After speaking with the election committee, Morse referred again to a quote by Adame in The Hornet where he said that he felt "that to be disqualified under these conditions is stupid."



Said Morse, "Everyone's got to fill out the right paperwork. You know, I felt stupid filling out my financial statement --because I had to write that I spent zero dollars on my campaign."



More than a half-dozen posters bearing the names of both Nagata and Morse had dotted the campus posting areas. Each hand-painted 3' X 3' poster cost 30 cents apiece at the FC Student Affairs Office. Yet, according to Morse, Nagata had paid for all the posters herself, though he helped post half of them on walls in the areas east of the gym and Wellness Center.


However, even though he didn't spend any of his own money, he was required to list the estimated cost of the posters on his financial statement, and include copies of the receipts. According to the A.S. Election Code, Section E-3.1, each candidate must estimate the value of "any donated campaign materials and/or personal materials owned or purchased prior to A.S. Election process." This point was emphasized by Darlene Jensen, A.S. advisor in the verbal orientation given to all candidates.


Morse may have another omission:


Members of FC's Campus Crusade for Christ club and other supporters gave campaign pitches to dozens of passersby while handing out 1" X 2" cards bearing the names of Morse and Nagata, who had also distributed these cards. Morse said that his girlfriend had created the cards on the office copy machine where she works as an assistant at Cal State, Fullerton. He said that they "hadn't cost her anything," nor him either.


Considering that statement, it is possible that Morse had not thought to list them nor estimate the approximate cost on his financial statement for his campaign. If such is true, Morse ought to have been cited with violations and likewise disqualified, counting the financial statement discrepencies and the poster in the EOPS window.


Yet, neither Nagata nor Morse were cited with anything. When this concern was brought to the attention of the Senate at their final meeting of the year, Vice President Laura Mata and advisor Darlene Jensen shot it down, citing a section in the code pertaining to violations. Jensen read aloud Section E-4.3, which states "A.S. Candidates shall submit any appeals regarding election violations to the A.S. Election Committee within 24 hours after the final closing of the election polls." Jensen defined this as meaning that if any candidates had concerns about any violations that might have been committed, such would have to be submitted to the committee by Friday, April 20.


This definition may seem specious; that section would appear to translate as candidates who were defending themselves against citations that had already been issued, not as concerns they had over rival candidates. Also, 24 hours after the polls closed, no violations had yet been issued by the Election Committee to any candidate. The poster violation had at that time not yet occurred, since the wayward poster was not "late" until after the deadline; neither had the financial statement violation yet occurred since the statements were not due until the next Monday.

Using Jensen's logic, violations occurring past the Friday deadline would be null and void --which would thereby nullify the citations against Adame, Martin and Mayorga; or perhaps she believes that only members of the Election Committee were allowed to note violations, and if any were missed by them, it would not count --even if noticed by rival candidates, average citizens, or FC students. With that sort of logic, if two individuals committed the same crime, but only one was caught and convicted by the law, ostensibly it would be allowable, using Jensen's definition of this section of the election code, which was the sole passage in the entire document cited by Jensen in shooting down the objection to approve the election results.


However, since the financial statements were not due until Monday, April 23, there was no way to express any concern in regard to any discrepancies, four days earlier. If the campaign materials and statements were not freely available for public view nor even to the eyes of the A.S. Senators there was no way for the senate to properly deliberate with all available information.


Yet they did.


On Tuesday, May 8 a lone voice in the A.S. motioned for a vote of no confidence in the Election Committee, citing the unfairness of one group of people being cited with violations and disqualified while others who committed violations were not. The Senate voted the motion down, 12-1, with 3 abstentions. The abstaining members were Negrete, Maestas and Mayorga. Adame had joined in voting the motion down --then voted to approve the election results, again 12-1 with 3 abstentions. Negrete, Maestas and Mayorga sat with arms --and feelings--crossed.



Said Adame, "I just wanted it to be over, and get on with my life."



Vice President Mata then commenced inductions of all elected candidates. Morse and Nagata were inducted as President and Vice President, while Adame was inducted as Student Trustee. Sarah Martin had left the room, so could not be inducted as ICC President. She was inducted a week later at the A.S. banquet by Jonathan Mayer, recently returned from his vacation. Mayer presented Morse with a new plastic-wrapped gavel with which to preside in the next academic year. Morse will sign a contract for a year's work as A.S. President, which pays a stipend of $165 for 11 months, and $185 the 12th month, for a total of $2,000.



One person who was happy at the banquet was Timothy Baten, one of the re-elected senators. Baten had served as the sole member of the A.S. Judicial committee for the entire semester. He learned that he would have company next fall. The lone voice who made the motion of no confidence pledged to join the committee and help to rewrite the entire A.S. Constitution and Election Code, to make conditions fair and equitable for all.


{NOTE: see I WAS RIGHT! I WAS CHEATED! for the recent update ]
I was Right! I was Cheated!
Financial Statements
Campus safety Rules regarding heads-in parking only

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