A hearing was held on April 29 to review an election grievance that was filed by candidate Cassandra Bratton against Amy Núñez and Mariana Garcia for allegedly speaking to a student organization about their campaign without properly notifying ASEWU.

The election board determined that neither candidate had violated any bylaws.

Núñez and Bratton are opposing candidates for academic affairs, and Garcia is running for diversity outreach.

Bratton said the incident occurred on April 16 when she observed a facebook comment on Garcia and Núñez’s campaign page that she believed indicated they had spoken with the Sigma Lambda Beta fraternity about their campaign.

ASEWU bylaw section 206, section 7 indicates that any school club or organization that allows one candidate to speak with its members or pass out campaign materials, must also allow equal opportunity to other candidates who are also running for the same office.

After checking the ASEWU’s speaking opportunities and checking with other candidates Bratton determined that the event was not on the list.

Bratton said this incident was not fair because the ASEWU had not been informed of the event more than two days in advance, therefore other candidates were not given the opportunity to speak to the chapter as well.

Núñez stated that she and Garcia had visited the fraternity because they were both also members of the Mecha outreach committee responsible for promoting an upcoming immigration reform rally.

“The reason we decided to present to them about the march is because they are a Latino based fraternity and [Mecha] has worked with them in the past … and we knew we could count on them for support,” said Garcia.

Garcia and Núñez both said all discussions with Sigma Lambda Beta on this occasion were strictly about the rally. Two witnesses from the fraternity were also present to support the claims.

The election board stated in their final decision that the candidates were not in violation because it is reasonable to assume that they met with the fraternity to discuss Mecha, not for campaigning purposes.