A paid announcement on Facebook.com endorsing a specific candidate for Mr. MSU generated more SA Homecoming elections controversy. The ad, which endorses candidate Michael Pennington, began appearing on various Facebook Web pages over the weekend.
Since the Student Association’s elections codes prohibit the active campaigning of a candidate in the Mr. or Miss MSU races, including the use of any form of mass communication, this development highlighted another election violation involving Facebook.com.
Pennington said he was contacted by SA elections commissioner Spencer Broocks Sunday night and was informed that he had an official warning.
According to SA codes, the first offense in election violations results in a written warning. Later violations can earn the candidate additional warnings, fines and eventual disqualification.
The text advertisement has the headline “Pennington for Mr. MSU.” The Facebook Web site offers such ads for $14 per day.
The Facebook Web site does not reveal who purchased the spot. However, the site does have contact information if any person needs to contact the advertising department with problems concerning Facebook ads.
Pennington said he did not create thead and had no idea who might be behind it.
“It’s their rules,” he said about the SA. “I have to go by their rules, and hopefully I am following them.”
Broocks said he was also made aware of the advertisement Sunday.
“I told [Pennington] to remove the ad as soon as possible,” Broocks said. “We’ll have to see what happens after 24 hours is up.”
Broocks also said he is going to contact Facebook in an attempt to have the site monitors take the ad down.
SA president and Mr. MSU candidate Jon David Cole said he believed Broocks is doing an excellent job upholding the rules set forth by the SA Senate.
“The Senate has in the past passed some ridiculous rules about Homecoming elections,” Cole added. “It seems ridiculous that Spencer has to go around doing this, but he’s doing his best, following the SA constitution. If individuals in the Senate would like to see the system change, I would seriously encourage them to revise the statutes.”
Cole suggested the statutes surrounding the Homecoming elections be altered to resemble the rules concerning the SA executive elections in the spring.
“The intent of the statutes is for no individual campaigning. I think that’s unfortunate,” Cole said.
Earlier this semester four groups were created on Facebook supporting specific candidates for the Mr. and Miss MSU race.
However, since these groups were created before the official candidates’ meeting, they were not in violation. Those groups were removed from Facebook shortly after the meeting.
One group remained after the meeting and without the knowledge of the candidate. This group, endorsing candidate Sarah Smith for Miss MSU, was removed from the Web site soon after, but not before Smith received an official warning.