Update February 28, 2017: The elections committee has amended the violations and punishments for Dario Garousian. After meeting with Garousian on Tuesday night, the committee realized that Dario had only two specific campaigning violations outside the campaign period, not three. His Facebook profile picture and event were timestamped from before campaign period started, but the page was published after. His campaign will now only be suspended for 24 hours.
James Cohen and Dario Garousian, who are running for President and VP External respectively, have violated the AMS Elections Procedures and Handbook. Both candidates committed two violations after being issued their first official campaign warning.
Cohen campaigned before the official campaign period, which began February 27 at 12:01 a.m., by adding a public Facebook profile picture with comments about his campaign, asking for a group’s endorsement and distributing his campaign platform.
Cohen also used campaign material — a public campaign website —that was not approved by the elections administrator.
As punishment for his first violation, Cohen must suspend all campaigning for 36 hours — 12 hours for each violation. This is effective as of noon today. His second violation has led to a $100 decrease in his spending limit, and a $50 decrease in his reimbursement limits. Cohen can now spend a total of $400, with a full reimbursement level of $300 and a partial reimbursement level of $100.
Garousian also began campaigning outside of the official campaign period. His Facebook profile picture and event were visible to those outside of his campaign, he asked for a group’s endorsement outside his campaign, and distributed campaign platform material.
Garousian received the same punishment and may not campaign for 36 hours.
He also used campaign material that was not approved by the elections administrator — a Facebook event as well as content posted in it, including photos and a link to a website. He once again received the same punishment as Cohen, a $100 decrease in his spending limit, and a $50 decrease in his reimbursement limits.
A full copy of the statement released by AMS Elections concerning these violations is available on the AMS Elections Facebook page.