Student body presidential candidate, junior Jack Noble, was disqualified from the race on Monday night — a day before the election.
According to a statement from the Board of Elections, the Noble campaign was found guilty of five violations: three counts of misrepresentation, one count of falsification and a location violation.
“The Board does not lightly disqualify candidates from elections,” the BOE said in the statement. “Our decision here is guided solely by the points accumulated across several Hearings and in keeping with the Automatic Disqualification statuses of the Joint Governance Code.”
Four cases were brought against Noble by students claiming a total of six allegations: two by sophomore Brady Creef, one by junior Nick Sengstaken and one by junior Carter Vilim. Both Creef and Sengstaken endorsed Noble’s opponent, Ashton Martin, on Facebook.
Of the four cases, Noble was found guilty in three, giving him a total of 18 points, putting him over the 15 points that disqualify a candidate.
In the statement, the Board of Elections said the bulk of the points were given to the Noble campaign in the Sengstaken and Vilim cases, where they considered aggravating factors in the claims by the candidate’s campaign.
“These claims had the potential of significant harm to one or more groups within the Carolina community and, therefore, justified harsher penalty,” the statement said.
The Board of Elections said the penalties given to the Noble campaign could have been reduced if they had corrected the situation earlier.
“Second, the severity of the penalties would have been significantly decreased had the candidate followed the self-reporting mechanisms provided by the Joint Governance Code and remedied the violations in a timely fashion,” the statement said.
