Home » News » Campus » Fearnall gets five

Fearnall gets five

As of Tuesday, the race for USC president has a new reigning demerit point champion. Adam Fearnall overtook Logan Ross’ four demerit points by collecting five of his own for campaigning in an unauthorized area.

The area in question was the Social Science Kiosk, which campaign members had booked for campaigning purposes, Eliot Hong, communications officer for the University Students’ Council, explained in an email.

According to bylaw 2, campaigning in faculty buildings requires the approval of both the faculty president and the chief returning coordinator.

“Adam’s team did not seek this approval before campaigning [and] the elections committee deemed this to be a violation [...] and so awarded the demerit points,” Brianna Peniuk, chief returning coordinator for the USC, said.

While Fearnall could have received a maximum penalty of 10 demerit points, the committee decided that due to mitigating circumstances, the act warranted a lesser penalty.

“The booth was shut down quickly and so had less influence than it potentially could have,” Peniuk noted. “The other mitigating circumstance that the elections committee considered is that it was members of his campaign team, and Adam himself was not present.”

Fearnall took the position that he and his campaign team “had a plan to get into as many faculty buildings as possible and, I think, somewhere along the line we just missed an approval.”

Peniuk maintained that it was the responsibility of candidates to “be aware of the policies governing the USC elections process.”

“The rule regarding campaigning in faculty buildings is clearly and explicitly stated in the bylaw,” she elaborated.

“You’re never happy to get demerit points, ultimately, and during an election, I think the elections committee is going to make the decisions they made for the reasons they think are important, and we’re happy to abide by their decision,” Fearnall concluded.

A USC president is allowed a maximum of 30 demerit points before they are disqualified.

Fearnall will be ordered to pay $6 for each demerit point out of his bond—a total of $30.

Follow the Gazette on Facebook and Twitter.