Election Board to hear campaign poster dispute

Member resigned, saying ASWSU failed to properly look into possible violations

FORREST HOLT, Evergreen news editor

The ASWSU Election Board will hold a hearing Thursday night to gather testimony regarding a potential misuse of an outside group’s resources in support of a campaign.

ASWSU Business College Sen. Ryan O’Dea, who supported President-elect Savannah Rogers and Vice President-elect Tyler Parchem, allegedly printed about 200 campaign posters using Residence Life ink and printers, according to an election violation allegation submitted to the Judicial Board.

Olivia Chatters, who submitted the complaint, was working at the Residential Education Center when O’Dea came in to print the posters. She said she decided to file the election violation allegation because she was unsure at the time if ASWSU candidates were allowed to use Resident Life resources to campaign.

Rogers said she did not ask O’Dea to print the posters and she did not know about the incident until after the election. She said the posters were not displayed as far as she knew, and all of her campaign’s expenses were accounted for.

In a statement, O’Dea said he recycled all the posters after printing them. He said no one from the Rogers/Parchem campaign asked him to print them, but he misunderstood what was available for campaigns to use at the time.

At the Election Board hearing Chatters will have time to explain her account of the event and Rogers and Parchem will have an opportunity to respond before the board enters a closed-door executive session to vote. The board will vote on whether the campaign was responsible for O’Dea’s decision to print the posters.