The Mountaineer

Issue date: 4/30/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Jessica Herrera Alfredo Camacho, finance senator, walks by the memorial, passing out fliers for his candidacy. The fliers contained information to encourage students to vote during the A.S. elections. See page 2 for information on flyer.

In the days leading up to the announcement of the Associated Student elections on Tues., April 29, complaints surrounding campaign practices and improper behavior at a recent A.S. sponsored memorial have come to light.
On April 17, members of A. S. sponsored a memorial service for the three Mt. SAC students killed in a car crash on April 11 in Pomona. The memorials were held on April 17 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 5-7 p.m. in front of the Student Services Center. While several members of A.S. attended the event to gather signatures from students for memorials for the families, other A.S. students promoted the A.S. elections and played football.
Alfredo Camacho, finance senator for Associated Students, handed out fliers to promote his candidacy for student trustee.
Cami Hernandez, 21, features editor for the Mountaineer, attended the memorial and asked Camacho for more information about the service. Hernandez said Camacho handed her a flyer for the A.S. elections, pointed out the Web site where she should cast her vote, and asked her to vote for him and the other candidates he endorses.
"I was upset that I was handed information about A.S. elections at the memorial service," Hernandez said. "I couldn't believe that A.S. was using a situation like this to promote themselves."
Prior to the weekly scheduled A.S. budget meeting on April 24, Camacho was asked about his actions at the memorial.
"The campaigning was not part of the memorial but we knew that campaigning was going on," he said.
In a formal complaint sent to the election committee previous to the elections ending, several issues were addressed dealing with unfair practices.
In the letter, members of the Change, Action, Results team were accused of having personal Web sites promoting their candidacy, setting up tables and using laptops at the tables, all of which are against election rules. There was also a complaint that Change, Action, Results asked a non-student practitioner to hand out fliers related to their team in exchange for a table, another rule in the elections directive that was broken.

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