The Student Government ballot has changed, and the Taco Libre Party may launch a write-in campaign to compensate.
In a finalized list of candidates released Monday, the only party whose official presidential and vice presidential candidates made it onto the ballot was Swamp. The Taco Libre Party’s presidential candidate, Stephanie Kreitzer, and vice presidential candidate, Juan Zapata, were not listed.
The Students Party did not run an executive ticket this Spring. The only executive candidate now running for the Taco Libre Party is treasurer hopeful Mica Montero.
Supervisor of Elections Justin Hoover said the removal of the two executive candidates reflected the vice presidential candidate’s failure to qualify properly. Zapata did not turn in the correct information.
“As the supervisor of elections, I am not able to place someone on the ballot who failed to qualify,” Hoover wrote in an email.
Kreitzer said she considered appealing the decision but isn’t sure it will be approved. If not, she will focus on a write-in campaign.
“We know that if we’re not on the ballot, we’re going to get significantly less votes than for a write-in campaign,” she said. “But the point in the election is to make a difference for students … and if we can make students more interested in student governments, then we’ve accomplished our goals.”
Because the president and vice president are a joint candidacy in SG, Hoover said, disqualification of one leads to disqualification of both.
Kreitzer said she thought the executive candidates had qualified. She said she found out about the disqualification Monday morning.
“Hearing that today, two weeks after the qualifying period, that’s really surprising,” Kreitzer said. “We were under the impression qualifying was submitting the 300 signatures supporting us on the ballot.”
Swamp Party spokeswoman Susan Webster wrote in an email that the situation came as a surprise to the party, but its campaign strategy has not changed in response.
“Our entire ticket including our presidential and vice presidential candidates will continue to reach out to the entire Student Body to ensure Swamp Party is advocating on behalf of all students’ interest,” she said.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 2/11/2014 under the headline "Taco Libre candidates off ballot, may turn to write-ins"]
