The Elections Commission Committee met Monday morning to rule on the two complaints filed by the UF Supervisor of Elections Hans Rojas during last week’s elections.
Rojas filed complaints against the Swamp Party and independent District B candidate Evan Morris because they failed to submit financial statements before the set deadline.
According to Student Government election codes, financial reports from all parties and candidates are due every Monday after the Sept. 10 mandatory meeting for all qualified candidates until the Monday following elections as well as the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the elections.
Swamp Party failed to submit a form on Sept. 29.
Swamp Party President Ricky Salabarria said the financial form he received at the mandatory meeting had a different date. The date listed was Sept. 30, not Sept. 29.
Rojas didn’t change the date on the template used from last Fall. Rojas said that the correct dates were listed on the SG website and on the PowerPoint presentation that Rojas gave to the parties.
“I didn’t think I would have to cross reference with the date sheet,” Salabarria said.
The committee unanimously agreed that the Swamp Party did violate the code. The committee ruled that Swamp has two weeks to turn in the financial statement from Sept. 29 for public records purposes or face another hearing.
Salabarria said the party would turn in its forms later that afternoon.
Morris said he did not know that a form had to be submitted every day during election week because he missed the mandatory meeting for election candidates because of an internship. He failed to turn in a financial statement on Sept. 30.
“I will openly admit that I did commit a violation. I did not turn in the sheet on time,” Morris said. The 20-year-old UF marketing junior lost in the election.
Rojas said Morris submitted the forms the next day after he realized his mistake.
The committee unanimously ruled that Morris did violate the code, but it ruled for no punishment against Morris because he turned in his paperwork even after the deadline.
[A version of this story ran on page 3 on 10/7/2014]
