Fines, Withdrawal Kick Off Elections

During the first full day of campaigning for the Undergraduate Council presidential and vice presidential elections, two tickets racked up campaign violations and another decided to withdraw from the race.

Council Election Commission Chair David I. Monteiro ’04 wrote in a message to the council’s e-mail list late last night that presidential candidate David M. Darst ’04 and running-mate Shira S. Simon ’04 were each fined for signs illegally posted in the lobby of Quincy House.

The violations result in a $10 deduction from the budgets of each of the candidates, which council rules limit to $100.

The violations come as a blow to Darst, who had already been cited for violating rules that prohibit early campaigning. According to Monteiro, Darst’s spending limit now stands at $58—a starting point substantially lower than other candidates’.

Fred O. Smith ’04 and his running-mate Justin R. Chapa ’05 were also fined for signs displayed in Emerson Hall.

The violations are the first for the Smith-Chapa campaign and will reduce each candidate’s budget to $98.

The ticket of Rohit Chopra ’04 and Jessica R. Stannard-Friel ’04 is the only to have postered without being cited for any violations.

The Darst-Simon and Smith-Chapa campaigns launched rallies outside the Science Center yesterday morning.

Although Chopra supporters did not do any outdoor campaigning, they did go door-to-door.

Some supporters of Chopra and Stannard-Friel said their campaign would start in full force later this week.

One ticket that had not made any campaigning efforts—that of Albert J. Lim ’04 and Seth N. Kisch ’04—withdrew from the campaign yesterday.

“We have reviewed the platforms of the other candidates and have found that at least one other ticket shares our platform almost in its entirety,” Kisch wrote in an e-mail to Election Commission members.

“In the interest of furthering these ideas, we have decided to drop out of the race to provide a more unified voice for those people who would agree with our platform,” Kisch added.

Lim and Kisch said they are not endorsing any other tickets at this time.

—Staff writer Alexander J. Blenkinsopp can be reached at blenkins@fas.harvard.edu.