Early Campaigning Update

The Election Commission met last night to discuss the report of possible early campaigning. They decided that an incident of early campaigning did occur.

Trevor and Beth had a joint Twitter account set up before the official start of campaigning. The account was not actually used to relay any campaign information, but the fact that it was established with the intent of being used in their campaign was a violation of the election rules. The Commission cited the Section 1 of the campaign rules in determining that early campaigning had occurred. Section 1 states that actions of formal campaigning include the creation of publicly available electronic social networking groups. Trevor and Beth removed the account as soon as the Commission became aware of it’s existence. The Commission decided that the account could be activated at 8:00 a.m. this morning, and they feel that this is an adequate punishment for the incident. The official report can be viewed on the NISG website.

I feel that the Election Commission handled this situation very well. While the Twitter account was technically in violation of the election rules, it was not actually used to actively campaign. Therefore, a more serve punishment for this incident would be unnecessary. I feel like accusations of early campaigning have become far too commonplace during NISG Presidential Elections, and their existence demeans the election process.