Following a Board of Elections meeting Tuesday night concerning the eligibility of student body treasurer candidate Ryan Dunn, a third-year studying political science and former executive chief of staff, a direct disqualification was issued by the board.
Dunn, who resigned as chief of staff on Feb. 21, sent a message on Feb. 19 to Garrison Seitz, a first-year studying engineering and now the only candidate for student body treasurer, encouraging Seitz to reconsider running for student body treasurer. This prompted Seitz to ask for a Board of Elections meeting to look into and investigate this incident.
The Board of Elections released their report Wednesday, directly disqualifying Dunn for candidacy. The board defines a direct disqualification as one in which the conventional three-warning policy has been abandoned in special cases where the candidate in question has acted with “severe disregard of the campaign regulations or malicious tampering with voting equipment,” according to the Board of Elections handbook.
Per the handbook, a disqualification hearing is required before a candidate is officially removed from running for office.
Rather than wait for the hearing, Dunn decided to withdraw himself from candidacy.
“Upon reflection of the election violation process and with the results tonight, I made the decision to withdraw from the race for treasurer,” Dunn said in a statement emailed to Technician. “Over the past few days, I have reached out and apologized to Garrison in an effort to make amends. While I am disappointed it ended on these terms, I am proud of my three years of service and accomplishments in Student Government.”
The board hearing started with a statement from Seitz read by Coleman Simpson, a fourth-year studying agricultural science and political science, and a senator representing the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Because Seitz was not able to attend the meeting, Simpson acted as a representative on his behalf. Simpson read a statement Seitz had written prior to the meeting.
“On February 19, 2019, I had just started laying down for bed when I received a notification from Ryan Dunn,” Seitz wrote in the statement. “This was very odd to me because I had never spoken with him and just knew him from Student Government as the executive chief of staff under the president and vice president… This message truly put me under a great deal of stress, because I did not know what to say or do. I did not respond to this message but it had a lasting effect on myself.”
The message, which hasn’t been released to Technician, sent from Dunn strongly encouraged Seitz to reconsider his run for treasurer.
“Many thoughts were going through my head such as ‘He’s right, I got in over my head with this. If I drop out then he is uncontested. Is that why he is doing this? If I don’t drop out I might make a fool [of] myself. Is this message even ok?’” Seitz wrote in his statement. “I got very little sleep that night over something I was so firm and confident in running for before the message.”
After Simpson read the statement from Seitz, he described what violations Seitz, the accuser, thought had occurred. After this, Dunn read a statement at the hearing apologizing to Seitz and explaining that he sent the message to Seitz asking him to reconsider running for treasurer because Dunn was under stress.
“It is my hope that the board sees this message as an impulsive, careless decision that occurred as a result of extraneous circumstances,” Dunn said. “I’ve regretted every second the choice that I made sending that message, and I am profoundly sorry to Sen. Seitz for belittling his involvement and passion for running for this position, and I made that aware in the apology that is also included within the submission.”
After Dunn completed reading his statement at the hearing, Simpson asked a series of questions to Dunn on behalf of Seitz, including if Dunn’s intention of sending the message was to get Seitz to drop out of the race.
All questions had to go through Board of Elections Chair Lilly Neal, a third-year studying psychology, before they could be answered by Dunn.
“In my statement, I mention that once I realized the names had become public, I impulsively made the decision to message Sen. Seitz and urged him to reconsider his decision to run for student body treasurer,” Dunn said.
Simpson, not satisfied with the answer, continued to press Dunn on this topic. Simpson restated his question multiple times, asking if Dunn hoped Seitz would withdraw from the race, if Dunn wanted Seitz to reconsider to the point of dropping out and the difference between asking Seitz to reconsider and not drop out.
Dunn maintained that his only intent in sending the message was to get Seitz to reconsider his candidacy and had not thought far enough ahead to consider that Seitz may drop out.
Following the end of Simpson’s questions, members of the Board of Elections were given time to ask questions of Dunn.
Lee Daniel, a third-year studying biology and commissioner on the Board of Elections, asked Dunn if his influence as chief of staff interfered with his candidacy.
“Do you feel that you ever conflated your former role and influence within that role as executive chief of staff with your current role as a candidate for student body treasurer in the spring 2019 election?” Daniel asked.
Dunn answered this by saying while he did attempt to keep the roles separate, he could not separate the expectations of the role and serve up to them.
“I did attempt to keep them separate,” Dunn said. “However, like any campaign, anyone, I feel like, is logical to leverage the experience of a prior student government role in the campaign.”
After questioning had concluded, the Board of Elections went into executive session to discuss the hearing and its ramifications. The Board of Elections made the decision to issue a direct disqualification to Dunn at around 10 p.m. Tuesday night.
In an email sent to Seitz by the Board of Elections, the reasons for issuing a direct disqualification were explained.
“It was the opinion of the Board that the multitude of rules broken in the course of the violation, paired with the accused’s extensive prior experience with Student Government Elections (in the capacity of both a candidate and as a former Chair of the Senate Committee on Government Relations and Oversight) met the requirements for a Direct Disqualification, pending a Disqualification Hearing,” the email said. “The evidence provided to the Board directly violates the following regulations in the Elections Handbook: Article V Section A (Candidate Responsibility), Article 5 Section Q (Undue Influence), Article V Section T (Official Campaign Start).”
Article V, Section A of the Board of Elections handbook states that “all candidates and campaigns shall be responsible for knowing the regulations of campaigning and adhering to all University policies and regulations. Ignorance of a regulation shall not be acceptable as a defense to a violation of a rule. Candidates shall be responsible for the actions of their staff.”
Article V, Section Q of the handbook states that “neither candidates nor their staff members shall expend any funds or aid in any effort to exert undue influence over the voting process. Those in a unique position are not allowed to use that position to advance a campaign.”
Section Q goes on to list examples of undue influence, including “using organization time to campaign without following protocol… using organizational resources such as printing for their own campaigns, using an organization’s money to fund their own campaign, using an organization’s right to reserve space or equipment to further advance a campaign.”
Article V, Section T of the handbook states that “no individual person, candidate, or campaign staff shall host mass events, display any form of campaign publicity, or publicly further the interests of said candidacy, which may include but not be limited to mass flyering, handing out materials on campus, promoting websites and/or social media websites, sandwich boards, chalking (the use of chalk on campus), or painting the Free Expression Tunnel, prior to the Campaign Start date. Candidates shall be permitted to share that they have ‘filed for candidacy’ once their name has been published on the Student Government website prior to the official campaign start.”
In addition to these violations, the board also decided that Dunn acted in an unethical manner as per Article 4 of the Student Body Statutes.
Seitz is now running for treasurer uncontested. When asked to comment on the hearing or its outcome, Seitz declined.
Technician reached out to Neal and Daniel for comment on the case. Daniel declined to comment on the specific case.
“Given the highly sensitive nature of election violation hearings and potential ethical questions that could be raised about swaying voter opinion and my objectivity with a statement, I’m not comfortable commenting on this concern at this time,” Daniel said.
Neal did not respond by the time of publication.
Student Body President Jess Errico, a fifth-year studying mechanical and aerospace engineering, said via email that Dunn’s actions toward Seitz was the reason for his resignation.
Errico also believes that going forward, Dunn will learn from this experience and should continue to be involved in Student Government in the future.
“Ryan has been deeply involved with Student Government for many years and has been an active contributor to its successes and a large piece of working to account for its failures,” Errico said. “Because of this, I think Ryan should be involved with Student Government going forward and believe he will learn from this situation and not repeat it.”
The headline for this article was updated for accuracy.
Ryan Dunn (left) withdrew from the race for treasurer after being disqualified by the Board of Elections. Garrison Seitz (right) is running for treasurer unopposed.
