Facebook Endorses Glazer for President

A banner encouraging students to vote in the Undergraduate Council presidential and vice-presidential elections greeted students who logged on to thefacebook.com yesterday, provoking inter-campaign controversy as the election winds to a close.

The banner endorses Matthew J. Glazer ’06 and Clay T. Capp ’06 and includes a link to the voting webpage, leading presidential candidate Tracy “Ty” Moore II ’06 to charge that the endorsement was an advertisement and should be charged to the candidates’ budgets.

“I’m not so sure that Teo [P. Nicolais ’06, presidential candidate] and I would have had any chance to obtain this kind of space,” Moore said. “I think it’s definitely unfair.”

Nicolais did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Concerned that the endorsement would be a violation of election regulations, thefacebook removed the post shortly after putting it up. But the Council’s Election Commission (EC) ruled last night that the endorsement would be treated like any other, and the post returned.

“It’s a private individual making an endorsement,” said Jonathan D. Einkauf ’06, chair of the EC. “Although we realize that Matt and Clay gained an enormous advantage we don’t feel that it was illegal or unfair.”

Following the posting of the endorsement banner on thefacebook, First Senior Class Marshal Caleb I. Franklin ’05—who is working on Moore’s campaign—e-mailed Einkauf to complain that he had similar access to a large group of students but opted not to e-mail the entire senior class because it would be an “abuse of power.” Later on yesterday evening, Franklin sent an e-mail to an undisclosed recipient list encouraging students to vote for Moore.

E-mail endorsements with undisclosed recipients violate campaign regulations, and the EC docked Moore and Nichols one point each.

In addition to the banner controversy, the Moore campaign was riled by two other facebook-related incidents yesterday.

After thefacebook group supporting Moore and running-mate Ian W. Nichols ’06 disappeared yesterday for several hours, the Moore campaign accused the facebook of “shady” dealings. But it soon became apparent that many groups other than theirs, including those of the other candidates as well as groups unaffiliated with the race, were also affected by what the website called a technical problem.

“There was a glitch in the site in general last night and this morning,” said facebook spokesman Christopher R. Hughes ’06.

In addition to the group glitch, Moore supporters said it was difficult for users to access the candidate’s personal page.

According to an explanation posted on the website last night, a new search algorithm—implemented recently to speed up processing—was to blame. The new algorithm only matches the beginnings of people’s names, so users who searched for Moore as “Ty” would not find his name among the results, because he is listed as “Tracy Tyrone Moore II.” Users who searched for Tracy Moore would have found that his page was still up.

In response to complaints, the site reinstated the old algorithm.

Glazer said he did not believe there was any evidence of foul play.

“I think it’s kind of disappointing for people to make those accusations and assumptions,” Glazer said. Glazer added that he was surprised to receive thefacebook endorsement.

The networking website has emerged as a campaign battleground this year, with candidates competing for supporters through campaign groups on the site. As of press time, the Moore-Nichols group had 668 members; Glazer-Capp had 428; and the group for Nicolais and his runningmate Samita A. Mannapperuma ’06 had 240.

Einkauf said that voting numbers have kicked up since yesterday, but that it was difficult to attribute that solely to thefacebook endorsement, since the Election Commission e-mailed most major student groups during the time the endorsement was posted.

“We’re going to smash the record for [voter] turnout,” Einkauf said, and added that last year’s number of voters had already been surpassed.