Your LSU was banned from campaigning during today and Tuesday’s Student Government presidential runoff after breaking SG election rules for the third time Friday.
The ticket’s candidates are forbidden to actively or passively campaign, which includes social media, after improperly using the SG logo on campaign materials.
The ticket’s leaders, Landon Hester and Kristina Lagasse, posted a video to Facebook on Sunday, before the campaigning ban took effect, in which they explained the infraction and urged students to vote. A visibly angry Hester said he didn’t think his ticket’s work should be “voided by a simple mistake.”
That mistake was posting to Facebook last week a collage of Your LSU candidates’ involvement at the University, some using the official SG logo without SG permission.
Improper use of the SG logo during election season is against the SG election code, according to SG Chief Justice Danielle Rushing.
In the final hours in which he was allowed to do so, Hester reposted his video with the message, “We have been silenced but you haven’t! Spread the word and VOTE!”
At least one Your LSU candidate was also doing last-minute campaigning via text message, writing, “Don’t let your future representation be at risk because of a technicality” and urging recipients to “spread the word to vote for Hester and Lagasse.”
Hester and Lagasse also acknowledged their violation of the rules in a message to Greek chapter presidents Sunday.
“We believe these sanctions placed upon the campaign over the Facebook collage reach beyond the actions of the candidates involved, however we must play within the rules we have been given,” they wrote.
SG Commissioner of Elections Amelia Burns would not disclose the details of the ticket’s first offense. The second violation came when a Your LSU volunteer campaigned within 20 feet of the 459 Commons last week.
 
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Contact Danielle Kelley at [email protected]