Students will finally find out who will represent them as president next year on Friday, April 5. That will be the date that the Student Government Supreme Court will hold a trial to decide if the violations against the winning campaign of Mark Lombardi-Nelson and Christa Hegedus will be reassessed.
The violations were originally illegally assessed after the election, though rules state they must be assessed as they occur. The mistake allowed Lombardi-Nelson and Hegedus to win the election. The trial won’t be to assess the validity of the charges, but whether or not they should be assessed.
A ruling in favor of reassessing the points would mean James Richards and Jordan Iuliucci would win the election by default. Richards requested the trial. The Election Rules Commission, led by Supervisor of Elections Vincent DeCosmo, will be the defendant in the trial.
The winning campaign sent a mass text message after the trial’s announcement to ask for support.
“They are trying to reassess the points that were unjustly given to Christa and I in the first place. We need as many people as possible to fill [University Student Center] ballroom 3 with our support. Please tell anyone and everyone to be there,” read the message, sent from Lombardi-Nelson’s phone.
Lombardi-Nelson said he disagrees with the charges because his campaign was not given time to correct the mistakes. He said the ERC initially approved of his plan to offer voters coupons to the Tavern, and that DeCosmo knew about the activities in his campaign that were later declared illegal. In one instance, Lombardi-Nelson said DeCosmo told him not to worry about campaign stickers that were put on a banner paid for with activities and service fees. Campaigning with A&S-funded materials is a violation of campaign rules.
“Of course he said they were unfair,” Richards said in an online interview. “He’s not going to just admit to it. He knows that the charges are accurate. The ball isn’t in his court though, the case is against the ERC.”
It is unclear what supporters for the Lombardi-Nelson/Hegedus ticket will be able to contribute to the proceedings. A request to DeCosmo went unanswered at time of publication.
Shortly before Nelson-Lombardi sent the mass text message to supporters he took to Facebook to thank those supporters and announce his unofficial win.
“I am ecstatic to announce that I have been re-elected to continue to serve as your Student Body President,” he wrote on Tuesday. “I know that this role is a Great responsibility and I will continue to give my all to make this University a better place.
Lombardi-Nelson went on to assert the violations were false.
“We are prepared and we are ready to prove that the allegations against us are both false and unjust,” he wrote.
The Richards/Iuliucci ticket reiterated on their Facebook page soon after that the trial was between Richards and the Election Rules Commission.
“There are rumors going around about the allegations being false, when this in fact is not true,” the post read. “If it were a matter of truth/false then the opposing ticket would be the defendant, not the ERC. The allegations are very accurate and were not dealt with properly during the election, so they must be taken care of in the manner of a court hearing.”
The Supreme Court also announced it will hold a hearing on April 12 to determine the legality of the elections themselves. SG elections were moved up earlier this year to be at the same time as the rest of the USF system. This would allow the USFSP president to be eligible to represent the whole system in Tallahassee.
The change in date required an amendment to the Student Government constitution. An amendment was approved in the election but would not take effect until 2014. The hearing will determine if the elections are valid this year.
A request for clarification about the exact consequences of the April 12 hearing were unanswered by the ERC.
