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Fuhgeddab-audit

Nyssa Kuwahara/Gazette -- What the Ron Swanson is going on here? You'll just have to pick up tomorrow's election issue to find out.

We got a peek at the apparently only partially completed USC elections audit this morning. There’s nothing earth shattering in it, but definitely a couple points of interest.

It goes into greater detail about the demerit points leveled on Andrew Forgione and David Basu Roy. These are all facts we confirmed here at Blog the Vote last week before anyone from the elections committee was willing to talk about it but now we have the official USC word on it so that’s something.

On Basu Roy’s 15 point penalty

“Basu Roy knowingly printed unapproved posters that violate the USC’s Advertising Oversight Committee’s policies. […] Basu Roy distributed this unapproved material around campus.”

And on Forgione’s four point penalty:

“Forgione attended the CSA, a USC ratified club, meeting the week before nominations closed. At this meeting, a member of his campaign team solicited support from the club.”

EnviroWestern also chips in their environmental audit which is based on the receipts provided by the candidates. According to them, Omid Salari has by far the most environmentally sound campaign, using just 55 sheets of paper and 659 litres of water to create said paper. Now, that could partially be due to the fact that his campaign didn’t really get off the ground until the beginning of week two. Plus, the report seems to indicate he hasn’t submitted all of his receipts yet. Regardless, they’re still impressive figures considering the numbers his opponents put up.

Forgione’s campaign used 505 sheets of paper and 12,672 litres of water to create the paper. That’s a lot but it pales in comparison to the 700 sheets of paper and 21,176 litres of water that the audit claims Basu Roy used. Basu Roy, need I remind you, specializes in environmental engineering so it’s certainly surprising to see him at the top of the list. When I asked him about it Monday afternoon, he said EnviroWestern only took into account the physical sheets of paper he used and not the type of ink which he feels has a greater impact that straight sheets of paper. Safe to say, he doesn’t think EnviroWestern’s report was as in-depth as it could have been.

The final portion of the audit takes on campaign finances and is apparently still incomplete. We’ll see what it looks like once all the receipts are submitted, but it’s still interesting to see where things stand at this point:

Couple things of note here. Forgione’s trendy reusable bags were the costliest investment of the period at over $600. Salari’s balloons came close, running him $580 when you factor in the outrageous price of helium tank rentals these days.

It’s safe to say Forgione got the better investment out of his $600, as he was able to produce a massive amount of bags which students can get some practical use out of after the election period. Meanwhile, Salari’s balloons have been a continuous nuisance for him, as they were constantly getting damaged or floating to the top of the UCC atrium, as helium-filled balloons tend to do.

Basu Roy, meanwhile, has spent the least to date of the three candidates yet has also run the least environmentally friendly campaign so far, according to the audit. That’s quite a feat. He avoided spending a large chunk of his budget on something elaborate like his competitors did, which is noble considering its student money he would be spending. But at the same time he was also the least buzz-worthy candidate of the campaign period.

We’re apparently going to be getting more information on the candidates’ campaign financials shortly so stay tuned for that. But as things stand now, I would say Andrew Forgione has easily spent his money the most effectively. He’s utilized his entire budget and run by far the most interesting, engaging campaign. Call it formulaic or establishment-based, but it definitely reached a lot of people. And in a popularity contest like this, is that not what’s most vital to getting elected?

Today in videos

• A shaven, nicely dressed and eloquent Omid Salari shows his professional side in his latest video effort. Is he bowing to his critics that say he’s unprofessional? Perhaps. But it’s probably something that he had to do considering his spiraling reputation during the campaign. And he makes an excellent point. It’s ironic that his campaign and candour during it has been called into question despite the fact he’s the only candidate to not receive a single demerit point.
• Also, this somehow didn’t make it into the blog last week, but here’s the video from CHRW’s Minute to win it experiment which offered all candidates running in USC elections an opportunity to plug themselves on air for a minute. It was tremendously underutilized by the candidates, most of whom didn’t bother to show up despite being told about it at their all-candidates meeting. Of course, all three presidential candidates did their part to ruin the project’s legitimacy, with David Basu Roy performing a spoken word thing, Andrew Forgione rapping and Omid Salari taking off his shirt.

Finally, no idea how I missed this one either, but my man Pat Searle wrote just a fantastic blog post last week about the hard-working students who run for senatorial and board of governor positions on their own buck with no reimbursement from the USC. A situation that leaves many feeling helpless:

“The lack of funding is really felt when you are running an at-large election, or cross-constituency election, when you can’t just rely on your experience within your own constituency. Without funding, you are left to print your own posters and bag-tags and rave cards or whatever, at your own expense. You feel a little helpless, and honestly, who can blame you?”

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