Was disqualification the ethical response?
Reporting about the SGA, not a record of it: The Johns Hopkins News-Letter published this and the SGA did not write it, file it, or approve it. The archive holds it because the article itself uses the phrase “sga”.
Summary
- This Johns Hopkins News-Letter column examines the ethics of a recent SGA election disqualification.
- The paper reported that a VP candidate won by a landslide but was disqualified for campaign violations.
- The article says the campaign rules existed before the election, so everyone involved was responsible for knowing and following them.
- The reporter writes that disqualification after a major victory was unethical and argues that penalties should match the violations.
- The article notes that Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign paid $375,000 in fines for campaign finance violations without being disqualified.
- The columnist says an independent committee should have reviewed the violations and estimated their effect on the vote, rather than applying automatic full disqualification.