DG fines members if they don't vote in student elections

[Greekgeezer]

I was searching for stories on DG, and I was reading that someone running for student president at a school in Missisippi fined the members of her sorority if they didn't vote in the student elections. She said she could do it because of some bylaw. I thought this was hazing. Am I wrong?


Here's the story from thedmonline :
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Case disqualified, No President Named," came the headline in Friday's DM.
Below it came an article that did more than just raise my eyebrows.

"Case was disqualified for a voucher fraud charge," said the paper.

I was definitely disappointed by this.

"Piazza was charged with fining members of her sorority if they did not vote...She was assessed a major penalty and fined $50."

Wait, what?

That punishment makes the Kincannon vandalism sentence look like a firing squad, especially considering the knife put through Hardy Case.

Think on this - Case's voucher showed him as being close to $200 below the spending limit of $1,000.

Know what he was nailed for?

He didn't record all of his campaign spending How someone managed to get a count on all the fliers, cups and stickers scattered across campus is beyond me. I guess the elections commission takes it pretty seriously.

What they don't take seriously is forcing students to vote. Forcing over 200 girls to vote in an election that barely broke 2,000 votes cast last Tuesday doesn't seem to be a big deal. Maybe if more than a 10th of the vote was forced then it would grab their attention.

Laura Piazza's sorority forced its members to vote and she lied about it in the televised debate. In all fairness, she didn't want to lie - she did an excellent job of dodging the original question poised by the Black Student Union representative. Her reluctance to lie was again clarified by her gaping mouth when pressured again by Hardy Case.

Piazza supporters say that all members of Delta Gamma would have voted for her anyway. Maybe, but the DeeGees are massive ? it's a strong possibility that a few of them would not have voted or would not have wanted her in office.

We'll never know, as they were also required to wear stickers and weren't allowed to work on other campaigns.

Nothing can convince me that the bylaws weren't vital to Laura's blanket of supporters that shrouded the campus.

Of course, it could just be a coincidence that a Delta Gamma has not lost an election in over a decade.

I assure you, if Hardy had that sort of vote buying power, his voucher would be missing even more. Laura got all of that for free.

The allegations brought against Laura Piazza were far more tangible and severe than the charge that disqualified Hardy Case. Unfortunately, Laura was "assessed a major penalty" and given a $50 fine. Maybe the "major penalty" is the ASB presidency.

It's probably a safe bet that Hardy Case won the vote, as his disqualification would be irrelevant had he lost.

And as for that "major penalty," Case was slapped with one as well, though his came after the original election.

Case held a meeting with more than 20 people before the campaign began. Obviously, in the eyes of the elections commission, this is as bad as forcing members of one of the largest sororities on campus to vote.

That only makes sense, as holding a meeting before the campaign and forcing a couple hundred votes affects the outcome in the same way.

Right. As soon as the elections commission chooses their next president, apparently based in no way on the opinions of the students who voted, they need to fix this problem.

This is outrageous. We spent all last week talking about the low ASB voter turnout and how students on this campus don't care, and now the elections commission lets Piazza off and disqualifies Case, throwing away the opinions of the students that do care.

If the decision stands, and it turns out that I'm right about Case winning the vote, this will stand as the most dismal moment of the year.

Suddenly, Hardy Case's "revitalize the ASB" campaign seems a lot more relevant.