All four lawsuits have been settled outside of the University Court with no campaign being disqualified. The Barousse-Harrell ticket has been elected student body president and vice president. 

Four LSU Student Government lawsuits have been filed against different campaigns since elections closed on Friday. 

Since then, four of the five campaigns have been involved in lawsuits for violating the Election Code. 

On Tuesday, Tyhlar Holliway and Gabreyela Gonzalez of the Heart ticket filed two suits against Benjamin Barousse and Anna Katherine Harrell of the Home ticket.  

One suit involved a claim that the Home campaign went over the food and drink spending limit allowed for campaigns. It also claims the ticket submitted inaccurate spending and donation reports.

Each campaign is required to submit a spending report that includes all goods and services used by a campaign that would impact how a voter casts a ballot. The donation report must list the name of each donor, the amount of money they donated and the date of donation. 

According to the suit, Holliway and Gonzalez alleged that the Home ticket reported a total of $621.55 spent on food and drink items listed as perishable, which is under the set limit. 

However, the suit claims the ticket did not include the “PJ’s Coffee Package” from the donation report in that cost and listed this item as nonperishable. 

Holliway and Gonzalez submitted photos and videos of Benjamin Barousse and Anna Harrell campaigning in Free Speech Alley on March 16 with “at least 7 gallons of iced coffee, 2 four-gallon carafes of hot coffee, and 2 large pump bottles of syrup (one vanilla and one caramel)” along with various creamers and sweetening packets. 

Photos and videos of the scene were posted to the Home campaign’s Instagram as well as Barousse’s personal Instagram. 

The Heart ticket says the total cost of these items is $450.50 based on the catering prices for PJ’s Coffee in Baton Rouge, which the campaign argues is still a “conservative estimate” that does not account for tax, cups, creamers or sweeteners. 

This would bring the Barousse-Harrell ticket’s expenditures on food and drink to $1,022.05, perishable items to $1,227.19 and total expenditure cost to $2,775.62. Each of these totals violate the spending limits set in the Election Code. 

The suit claims that the alleged excessive campaign expenditures gave the Home ticket an unfair advantage over the Heart ticket. It also argues failing to accurately list the cost of donated items constitutes a separate violation under the Election Code. 

Holliway and Gonzalez are requesting a total of 26 penalties against Barousse-Harrell. 

Henry Hanks, chair of the election committee, told the Reveille that an SG campaign would need to receive eight penalties in order to be disqualified. 

If that number was met, Hanks said it would be up to the University Court whether the entire campaign would be disqualified or only those involved in the suit. 

The second suit the Heart campaign filed involves a member of the Home ticket’s legal team, Jackson Hardman, who allegedly threatened James William III of the Heart ticket to prevent the campaign from filing a financial suit. 

On Tuesday, Hardman reached out to Ava Ryder, the campaign manager for the Heart ticket, to talk about “some election stuff,” according to submitted evidence. 

Ryder then referred Hardman to Williams and the two met in the SG Legislative office. Williams recorded the conversation without Hardman’s consent, which is legal in Louisiana, until Hardman asked them to stop. 

According to the suit, the conversation revolved around the “virtues and outcomes” of the Heart campaign filing a suit. 

In this conversation, Hardman allegedly brought up a case from last year’s election involving twice-disqualified presidential candidate Alex Foret, which prompted intervention from three Louisiana state politicians.

The Heart campaign felt that Hardman’s comments were insinuating that similar results would happen if it filed a suit. Allegedly, Williams asked Hardman if he was planning on involving state senators or other politicians and Hardman responded affirmatively.

Hardman allegedly went on to say that he would bring in politicians from his time working in Washington, D.C. and from the state Legislature. 

Hardman also allegedly pointed to the fact that a similar case would “kneecap” SG’s credibility and that, if a ticket was disqualified, it would take the vote out of students’ hands and into the Court’s. 

In a later conversation, Holliway, Williams, Barousse, Harrell and others from the two campaigns met to discuss the conversation between Williams and Hardman. This conversation was recorded by one of the parties.  

“It felt very much like we were getting threatened to not file anything,” Williams said in the recording. 

According to the recording, Barousse stated that Hardman did not represent the Home ticket during the conversation and that the campaign did not know what Hardman planned to tell Williams prior to their meeting.

“That is completely embarrassing to us and our ticket cause we have no intention of doing that,” Barousse said in the recording. “That’s not what we’re about and that’s not what we stand for.” 

Holliway and Gonzalez claim that the discussion between Hardman and Williams constitutes a threat to persuade the Heart ticket to not file a suit. They argue that Hardman was acting as an authorized agent of the Home ticket. If substantiated, this action would violate the election code.

Because Hardman is not currently a member of SG or a candidate for an SG position, the Heart campaign is requesting that the court issue a public reprimand of the Home ticket. 

A public reprimand by the Court includes a formal declaration that required standards were not met. 

On Wednesday, a third suit was filed by Jack Miller and Sydney Hebert of the Rooted ticket against Darion Frazier and Bellamia Miceli of the Together ticket. 

The suit claimed the Together ticket failed to report the purchase of jambalaya by their ticket on the campaign’s spending and donation reports.

According to the suit, on March 17 Frazier and Miceli gave away jambalaya to potential voters in Free Speech Alley, which was not submitted on their financial reports on Tuesday.

The suit claims that if the jambalaya were included in the financial reports, the total cost would violate the amount a campaign is allowed to spend on food and drink items. 

Failure to report the jambalaya, surpassing allowed costs and inaccurately reporting items on the spending report would violate three different election codes.  

Miller-Hebert is requesting that the court levy 16 total penalties against the Together ticket. If applied, the campaign could face disqualification from the Court. 

In a now-dismissed suit, the Together ticket filed a suit against the Rooted ticket on Saturday for allegedly beginning to campaign before active campaign week. This suit was voluntarily withdrawn by the Together ticket on Sunday.

A hearing for these suits is scheduled for Monday with rulings from the University Court expected by April 3.