 "Photo: Tamir Kalifa; The Daily Texan")
Philip Tau and Sarah Michelle Stearns may resume campaigning at 10:30 a.m. today after appealing the Election Supervisory Board’s sentence Tuesday night.
The Student Government Judicial Commission lessened the board’s punishment from a $100 fine to a $75 fine and ruled that the Tau-Stearns campaign for SG president and vice president could resume 12 hours earlier. The candidates will now be allowed to participate in tonight’s debate.
“Awesome! There is justice in this world, and it’s sweet,” Tau said.
The commission declined to comment on its decision pending the release of a report in the next 24 hours.
Tau and Stearns appealed the board’s decision Tuesday night to the Judicial Commission, arguing the punishment was too severe. Tau was a member of the commission until deciding to run for SG President in January.
“I think that it’s overkill to have both the two-day suspension and the fine,” Tau said.
The election board ruled Monday night that Tau and Stearns could not participate in any campaign-related activates for 48 hours and must pay a $100 fine after a Facebook group with more than 60,000 members titled “Texas did beat OU 45-35, lest we forget” was changed to “VOTE PHILLIP AND SARAH MICHELLE FOR SG President and VP! :)” on Thursday night.
Tau and Stearns said they had nothing to do with the name change.
“I personally am really offended that our integrity is being called into question,” Stearns said.
Cesar Martinez, co-chair of the Election Supervisory Board, said inconsistencies with Tau’s testimony during Monday’s hearing was a determining factor in deciding the candidates’ punishment.
Initially, Tau said he had never met Austin Talbert, an administrator of the Facebook group but later said he had contacted him through Facebook.
Tau said at the Tuesday hearing that he had communicated with Talbert, a Texan sports writer, only through Lance Kennedy, who was an administrator of the group until Friday afternoon.
Both Kennedy and Talbert declined to comment Tuesday.
“It could not be proved that [Tau and Stearns] were directly involved, otherwise they would have been disqualified,” Martinez said.
Harrison Yeager filed a complaint Tuesday afternoon asking the election board to allow Tau and Stearns to participate in the debate.
“I do feel that to not allow candidates to participate in an open debate where they will have the chance to vocalize their platform is an injustice to the student body,” Yeager said.
All candidates running for a Student Government office or editor-in-chief of The Daily Texan were invited to attend the debate.
Student Government President Keshav Rajagopalan said that while losing two days of campaigning will be difficult to make up, it will not be a decisive factor in the outcome of the election.
“If they’re running a great campaign, it’s nothing that can’t be recovered from,” Rajagopalan said.
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