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Past instances of overspending by candidates for undergraduate student government led the elections commission to increase candidates’ spending limits for Wednesday’s election.
Candidates for seats in the governing body the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico (ASUNM) will have a $250 limit for campaign expenses, a $50 increase from previous elections. The budget increase will apply to Wednesday’s ASUNM Senate election.
Elections Commission Executive Director Alberto Jacome said the decision, which the commission proposed last month, helps candidates avoid exceeding their spending limits, which he said is cheating.
“Excessive spending is something we take very seriously because it’s cheating, especially if you’re not reporting it to us,” he said. “It’s kind of giving them a leeway to avoid excessive spending.”
Jacome said the change makes it makes campaigning easier by bringing the spending limit in line with the economy.
“We looked at the rate of inflation of the U.S. dollar, and it was something like $56.28,” he said. “Two hundred bucks is a lot of money, but things are getting more expensive, so candidates are actually not being able to buy as much as they can 10 years ago.”
Jacome said the Elections Commission penalizes candidates who overspend. He said that if a candidate reports that he or she went over the $250 limit, the candidate will be subject to fines. But if the commission finds out that a candidate overspent without reporting it, the candidate will be subject to other consequences, which could include being banned from running for election or losing his or her seat.
The last overspending case, Jacome said, was last fall, when a slate went over the $200 limit by $60. As a result, he said four members of the slate lost their speaking and voting rights during the first two committee meetings and the first full senate meeting after their election, and one member was not allowed into the meetings at all.
ASUNM Sen. Malika Ladha was a member of the penalized slate and helped write the bill for the new spending limit. She said the previous elections code was vague, especially considering overspending guidelines.
“There were a lot of gray areas in the elections code, and that was something we really wanted to change,” she said.
As a result of the incident last fall, Ladha also wrote a bill that would help regulate candidate spending for fliers. She said candidates often buy in bulk, because it’s cheaper than buying smaller numbers of fliers, but sometimes bulk orders cost more than the spending limit.
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“I was one of the students affected by (overspending), and that’s why I felt it’s very important that it’s something that doesn’t reoccur again,” she said. “It’s something that future slates have guidance on.”
Ladha’s bill, which passed last spring, allows candidates to return unused fliers to the Elections Commission. The commission then assesses the value of the returned fliers, and that amount will be subtracted from the total expenses of a candidate.
“So if you’re buying 1,000 fliers because it’s cheaper but you only need 500, you’re allowed to return 500 to the Elections Commission before the election day and we will subtract that from the total amount,” Jacome said.
To identify the amount that will be deducted from candidates’ total expenses, Jacome said the commission will divide the total number of fliers the candidate purchased by the total cost for the fliers, to determine the price of each flier. The commission will then multiply the price for one flier by the number of fliers the candidate returns.
Jacome said the main problem the commission had with fliers was that candidates didn’t report the full number of fliers they used.
He said the commission calls each vendor indicated in candidates’ reports to verify the number and price of the fliers purchased.
“What happened in the past is that the slates didn’t put the same amount of invoices that they actually made. They spent more than what they actually put in,” he said.
Jacome said the returned fliers are recycled by the Elections Commission.
Jacome said that although overspending is the biggest and most controversial problem among candidates during elections, the problem has not occurred since last fall.
“I’ve seen it once in the past two years,” he said. “The candidates have been more careful with their spending.”
To remind candidates of the election code, Jacome said he met with each candidate two weeks ago to explain the elections code and put emphasis on spending rules. He said he provided candidates with printed copies of the new election code so that they could access the guidelines more easily.
Jacome said he urged candidates to keep track of their budget more keenly, because if spending issues arise, they will ultimately hurt the candidates’ campaigns.
“There’s no need for any type of cheating or lying or misconduct during elections,” he said. “If you’re cheating, that’s what people are going to remember you for.”
