Student Government's minority party is once again facing reorganization.
Progress Party officials were notified in a March 1 email that the party was "suspended from using the name ‘Progress' or likeness for the Fall 2011 election cycle" for distributing fake "SG I Voted" stickers.
The 11 Progress Party senators retain their seats in Student Senate, and are considered members of an independent caucus within Senate, rather than a party.
The complaint was filed specifically against Sagar Sane, the former vice presidential candidate for the Student Alliance Party prior to that party's merger with the Progress Party.
According to Georgia Buckhalter, chair of the five-person elections commission, Sane was identified as a member of the Progress Party in a statement he submitted to the elections commission prior to a late February hearing where the complaint was addressed.
"He explicitly identified that he was in the party," Buckhalter said.
She said the Progress Party was notified of the hearing, where members would have the opportunity to refute any claims of misconduct.
In determining whether a penalty is necessary, she said, the commission could only use the complaint and any evidence and statements put before them at the hearing.
No Progress Party members attended the hearing.
The distribution of the stickers violates two SG Election Codes - one that states that the Supervisor of Elections has the exclusive right to the distribution of material indicating a student has already voted, and another that states that no representative of a political party may misrepresent material as belonging to the Supervisor of Elections.
"They tampered with the integrity of the election cycle," Buckhalter said.
Schneider called the Election Commission's actions "egregious" and said he doubts the ruling will stand against a planned appeal to the UF Supreme Court of the Student Body as Sane is no longer a UF student.
Members of the former Progress Party will start organizing another minority party for the fall election season.
"The Unite Party dealt these people a huge disadvantage," Schneider said. "Whatever new party forms in the fall is going to take the majority party to task for silencing its critics."
Senate President Ben Meyers, though not involved in the hearing, said he hopes the students who were a part of the former Progress Party will not be deterred from working with Student Government.
"There are a lot of hardworking people in the Progress Party," Meyers said. "I hope they'll continue to stay a part of the conversation in helping to make UF a better place."
