Clemens v. Election Commission 2008-1

I had a few questions today about what was going on with my case against Jake. I feel like I should address it here. I was talking to Jake last week about filing and Jake had mentioned that he allowed for candidates to file outside of the designated filing time. When I heard this I was very alarmed for a few different reasons. My major concern of this was the simple fact that if the Election Commissioner doesn't follow the rules set out than how can you expect the candidates to follow the rules (this is a separate issue from this case in particular). Another thing that upsets me is that Jake allowed for exceptions to the rules while other candidates in the past were given no such privilege.

I think that Jake's motivation was to try and get as many candidates filed as to make himself look a little better considering only 40 candidates filed for 60 seats (my Sophomore year we had 45 or so file for off campus alone). Jake is spending a ridiculous amount of money for the election but spent virtually no money for filing days. On top of this he raised filing fees for Senate and this did not help a bit.

To get back on topic...
Jake refused to give out the information that was needed to make a case against him. This is a pretty decent defense mechanism but it seemed obvious that he had no reason to withhold information and the court agreed. Jake was ordered on Friday to release the information that I had asked for. I have not seen the information as of yet but I told him I did not need it until the weekend was done.

This case is important for a few other reasons also. This sends a message to any member of the SGA that all information is the property of the Students. More later on the bigger picture of this ruling.

Documents:
Clemens V Election Commission 2008-1 Court Decision
Clemens V Election Commission 2008-1 Case
Clemens V Election Commission 2008-1 Denied Motions to Dismiss