To the Editor:

Am I disappointed I lost the Grand Marshal race? Of course I am; I spent almost every waking moment these past two weeks on my campaign. Preparing speeches, writing platforms, and designing and installing posters are things that are difficult to manage, especially at a busy school like RPI. I had to put my social life and my school work second in order to have a fighting chance.

Yet, I am not just disappointed about the fact that I lost; rather, how I lost. If I was purely being a sore loser, I would have opened a Judicial Board case and pleaded a case for which I would have strong merit. But this would only bring negative publicity to the student government. I sincerely congratulate Michael Zwack ’11 and the great campaign he ran.

The Rules and Elections Committee is a Student Senate committee that was created to organize and police fair and efficient election processes. RNE is overworked, under-paid ($0), and under-appreciated. I thank the current RNE Committee for their hard work, late hours, and a voter turnout that was about 50 percent. That is a tremendous victory. Yet, there is no doubt in my mind that they ruined the democratic process this past election.

Although I didn’t run a perfect campaign, I am proud of the way I ran it. I was respectful—I took down posters my opponents felt infringed on their poster space, although I technically didn’t have to—I played fair and nice without running a smear campaign, and I was polite and honest with RNE. I was frustrated with them at times, but I never once swore at them or marginalized their work. I just strongly disagreed with about half of the 12 or so violations they tagged me with. I was particularly frustrated with the appeal process, wherein punishments are enforced before one has an opportunity to appeal the case. Guilty until proven innocent. Wonder why my posters weren’t up two days before the election? RNE went around and physically ripped down all my posters in violation before I was allowed to appeal the violations I was sure were unfair. As per the handbook, I was allowed 48 hours to have an appeal, and only after the appeal was a final punishment to be made. In legal cases, you are accused, you defend your case, and, finally, your punishment is enforced. In this case, I was accused, punishment was enforced, and then I defended my case after the very evidence I could use to defend my case was removed. Sure, RNE took photos of the “scene,” but that’s not the same.

RNE will tell you they did their job, but I will leave you with one point. On election day I was punished by RNE with 16 hours of community service, $18.50 charged to my bursar account, and, worst of all, I lost all campaigning privileges on the entirety of the academic campus. An inability to campaign is the second worst possible punishment—to being removed from the ballot. I decided I would at least give out the free food I had purchased along with free high-fives. I did all this without once saying my name or telling people to vote. RNE came over and told me that I was drawing too much attention to myself, thus campaigning. So much for free speech rights …

So I ask this: Was the advantage my opponent received on the last day—by having hundreds of posters up, giving away donuts, and being able to say anything he wanted—merited based on the many small technical infractions I piled up? I would say no. I would say he was given an advantage that far exceeded any advantage I had based on my small technical infractions. Worst of all, this advantage was granted by the very violation process that is designed to “level the playing field.” My being essentially removed from the campaign process should be reserved only for the most egregious and malicious acts, not technical infractions or missing a small clause in the RNE Handbook.

In conclusion, I want to say that this story is bigger than me. I’m not bringing this up for verbal sympathy in our school’s hallways by whomever reads this; rather, I hope this never happens to anyone at this school ever again. Although part of me thinks I should run away from the same student government that tore me down, I plan to work hard to change the very process that has sincerely hurt me. So let’s move on and fix this broken election process.

Ben Hunt

STSS ’10