The Undergraduate Students Association Elections Board found complaints of election candidate harassment to be valid, according to a ruling April 20.
A candidate in the upcoming Undergraduate Students Association Council election – for which voting is scheduled to begin Friday – received an email from an anonymous account stating “it’s better to be safe than sorry,” according to a written statement from the elections board. The victim also alleged that their car was broken into on the same day they received the email, an incident now under investigation by local police, according to the statement.
The elections board has not disclosed the identity of the candidate in question, following a request from them to remain anonymous.
The elections board interpreted the email as threatening given the context of the elections and because the email came from an anonymous account, said Mher Arutyunyan, the elections board’s director of investigations. All candidates underwent additional training before campaigning this year about harassment and the use of anonymous digital accounts, he added.
Since the perpetrator of the action has not been identified, the elections board cannot take action through sanctions, said Arutyunyan, a fourth-year political science student.
“We found no records of the email having ever been registered with the elections board, and so we were unable to determine the identity of the entity or the individual behind the email address,” Arutyunyan said. “We advise the candidate to follow up if they were to receive any additional notes from the police investigation.”
The statement released by the elections board also condemned the act as detrimental to the integrity of the election.
“The Elections Board strongly condemns any and all attempts at intimidation and harassment,” the elections board said in the statement. “Anonymous threats and vandalism create an unsafe environment and compromise the safety of the candidates and campaign officials engaging in the election process.”
The elections board would impose severe sanctions if information emerges implicating another candidate as the perpetrator of the incident, Arutyunyan added.
“If there is evidence which would emerge from that which would tie a particular entity or individual to this case, then we will act,” he said.
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