The Election Board recently received election complaints pertaining to alleged active campaigning on The Commons Terrace by Genevieve Okoro. The complaints connect to a potential violation of the following election rules:
- Rule 5: “’Campaigning’ refers to advertising one's candidacy through verbal, written, printed, or electronic promotion. ... “Active campaigning” refers to activities which involve direct physical, verbal engagement with people, and direct messaging via social media (see Rule 7).”
- Rule 12: “No active campaigning is allowed from 12:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. during the campaign, and voting periods; passive campaigning will be permitted during the voting period.”
- Rule 17. “Campaigns are prohibited from sitting at non-reserved tables in The Commons with the intent to distribute information in support/opposition of a candidate and/or ballot issue(s).”
As a related note, all candidates received the following reminder via email from the Election Board Chair on Tuesday, April 7th: “Remember that active campaigning concluded [sic] this Saturday at 11:59pm. While you can share the link with students and explain how to vote, you are only allowed to campaign in a passive way for the duration of election week.”
After careful review of the complaint and 2026 Election Rules, the Election Board voted to open an investigation of this complaint into Genevieve Okoro.
In investigating the complaint against Genevieve, the Election Board Chair shared an email from Genevieve—time stamped before the complaints were submitted—in which Genevieve described the actions included in the complaints: “as I go around with my poster without saying anything to anyone, and someone comes up to me and asks what I am running for, can I then tell them to vote for me?” The Election Board Chair responded in two separate emails that this was a form of active campaigning and thus prohibited.
Given the combination of firsthand accounting, photographic evidence, and the disregard for explicit feedback from the Election Board Chair to the candidate, the Election Board agreed that Genevieve Okoro was engaged in active campaigning during Election Week in violation of Rules 5 and 12. To address this violation, Election Board:
- implemented a sanction of a suspension of her campaign until 11:59pm on Friday, April 17th and;
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required an Election Board-approved statement to be posted on all campaign-connected accounts acknowledging the issue and the associated sanction.
Rule 17 was dismissed in this situation as the table in question was outside The Commons on the Terrace, not in The Commons proper. The table in question was also non-reservable, meaning a reserved/not reserved distinction was not applicable. It was also unclear from the reporting whether the candidate sat at the table when engaged in active campaigning.
The Election Board wants to reiterate that any student who believes that they have witnessed an Election Rules violation should report a complaint to the Election Board, remembering that complaints must be filed by 48 hours after an alleged violation is discovered OR by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, April 19th-- whichever is earliest.