When updating the Presidential Election Handbook for the Missouri Students Association 2012 election, the Board of Election Commissioners had two goals in mind: organized campaigning and simple rules.
“The BEC wanted to make the (campaigning) process simpler and make it easier to follow,” MSA Director of Communications Zach Toombs said.
The handbook is updated annually and serves as a strict guideline for presidential and vice presidential campaigns, known as slates.
“The handbook is essentially law for the election,” BEC chairman Tyler Ricketts said.
With this year’s updates, the BEC sought to create general guidelines that make campaign conduct clear to follow without making arbitrary rules.
“The changes get to the heart of the (old) rules’ intent,” Ricketts said.
The first change was within the rules of filing to run in the election.
In previous years, slates began campaigning once they submitted their nominating petitions consisting of 500 undergraduate signatures. This allowed for various slates to begin campaigning at various times.
For the 2012 election, slates can only file on Sept. 17 from 1 to 5 p.m. After those four hours, campaigning can begin.
The handbook did not just change the election process; it also changed the election audience.
As of this year, slates are allowed to campaign more freely in residence halls. This includes putting slips in residences’ mailboxes and setting up tables in halls after approval from the Residence Halls Association.
The BEC also extended RHA’s ban on door-to-door campaigning in residence halls to Greek chapters.
“Previously, it was easier to campaign in Greek Town than in residence halls,” Toombs said. “This levels the playing field.”
The BEC also wants to make students more interested in the 2012 MSA election by further restricting harassment of students. The BEC hopes this will get students involved in the election process instead of turning them away.
One of these efforts is through limiting mass emails.
Ricketts said mass emails “turn students away” from the election. This prompted the BEC to broaden what is considered a mass email.
As of the 2012 election, the definition of a mass email went from sending the same note to more than 200 recipients to sending the same note to more than one recipient.
Slates are still allowed to send mass emails to campaign staff and to solicit campaign workers, but they are not allowed to send mass emails asking for votes.
The other main change is redefining what is considered obstructing the election —- an offense that could get a candidate expelled from the campaign.
“There have been instances where official campaign workers intentionally or unintentionally interrupted a space while voting was taking place,” Toombs said.
Previously, the handbook specified that slates had to remain 50 feet away from all polling locations. Ricketts said he felt this rule created loopholes because a campaign member could get around the guideline by standing 51 feet away from a polling location.
The BEC generalized the restrictions to ban any activity “inhibiting the free participation of a student in the election process,” according to the BEC Presidential Election Handbook. This includes trying to influence a student while voting.
The new BEC Presidential Election Handbook passed in Senate on Wednesday.
All of these new rules will take effect Sept. 17 with the start of campaigning. Three different debates are scheduled beginning on the first week of October.
The election begins Nov. 5 and will last for two days. The winner will be announced Nov. 7.
