Tuesday night the Student Government Association elections board levied a $250 fine against the Loving Slate, in addition to a $30 fine levied last Thursday.
The new fine was added for campaign signs posted over current posters, including those of the Manship Slate, on the kiosk by Robert Bell Building and the Scramble Light, said elections board chair Michael Metcalf.
Metcalf also said the Loving Slate was fined last week for posting campaign signs on unavailable bulletin boards.
"A bulletin board is considered unavailable if it is declared for department postings only," presidential candidate Nick Loving said.
The first violation was incurred by two signs posted on a political science bulletin board in North Quad, Loving said.
Loving said they appealed the fine.
According to the election code, posters are allowed only on available bulletin boards.
Loving argued this was not a violation because of a letter granting permission to use the board by Joe Losco, chairman of the political science department.
"We hung them up in North Quad because we thought we had worked that out with the political science department," Loving said.
Losco confirmed that permission had been granted.
"I was asked if various slates could use the bulletin board," Losco said. "Any slates could use it as long as it didn't violate election code."
We like to encourage involvement in politics."
A letter was written to the Loving slate granting permission to use the bulletin board, Losco said.
The Manship Slate's concern is keeping dirty attacks out of the campaign.
"We were told to follow the election code to the T... and we're just concerned about keeping this clean," presidential candidate Jayson Manship said. "We've talked to the Loving Slate about keeping it clean."
A disagreement has risen concerning the reporting of the fine.
"(Metcalf) said if we didn't say anything, it wouldn't be in the paper because the election board wouldn't leak it," Loving said.
The election board was afraid of reporting all leaks to the paper, Metcalf said.
"If the board went to the Daily News right after a fine, it could be construed as targeting," Metcalf said. "We're trying to remain as impartial as possible."
This understanding changed after SGA president Tolu Olowomeye was informed of the fine.
"Michael told me about the fine and I asked if it had been reported to the Senate or the Daily News," Olowomeye said. "He said no."
Olowomeye said she informed him the fine needed to be reported in some way.
"To keep it in accordance with this public organization we wanted to keep everything open," Olowomeye said. "We have an open door policy; books and records are all open to the public."
"This needs to be stated for people to have a clear picture of both groups.
Metcalf agreed to make the incident public.
"To keep it from being misconstrued as us sweeping it under the rug, I agreed to report it," Metcalf said.
This is not the first complication of the campaign.
About 100 posters of the Loving Slate have turned up missing and some have been moved to illegal spots, Loving said. However, the slate is not afraid of fines caused by these moved posters.
"Every time I find posters missing, I report them," Loving said.
These are some of the problems the two slates hoped to solve with the "gentlemen's agreement."
Chris Borkowski, Loving Slate chief of staff, communicated an agreement to the Manship Slate that violations would not be reported to the public, presidential candidate Jayson Manship said.
"My slate has an agreement (with the Manship slate) that we wouldn't tear down their signs if they didn't tear down ours," Loving said. "Also, if we found any violations we would notify them before going to the elections board and vice versa."
This was to help stop campaign attacks and keep the campaigning friendly, Loving said.
Olowomeye would give no credence to the agreement between the slates.
"We don't work with personal agreements," Olowomeye said. "We are bound to the election code."
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