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Bruins United candidates will not be able to campaign for the majority of the day today, the last day of the Undergraduate Students Association Council’s runoff election, because of sanctions from the Elections Board.

The sanctions are the result of candidate endorsements for runoff election that were sent by the On Campus Housing Council via e-mail to students on the Hill, an act that violated the elections code.

The e-mail, sent on Tuesday, discussed the importance of USAC, reminded students to vote, and included OCHC’s presidential endorsement for Bruins United candidates Alex Gruenberg and Jesse Melgares for president and external vice president, respectively, in the runoff elections.

Gruenberg said the sanctions will be detrimental to the campaign and called them unfair and inconsistent with how the Elections Board has been operating in the past two weeks of elections.

“The sanctions are not only excessive, but absolutely ludicrous,” he said.

The Elections Code allows for candidates or groups to electronically advertise their endorsements and candidacy through group listserves that students have voluntarily joined. According to the Elections Code, OCHC would have been able to send the e-mail only to its organization’s members or people it personally knew.

But the e-mail was sent to all students living on the Hill, and questions have been raised as to the privacy of some students who are concerned their e-mail address was used without their permission.

OCHC e-mailed a statement to Hill residents apologizing for the misunderstanding and the Elections Code transgression.

The allegations of hacking were proved untrue in a meeting between involved parties, as OCHC had gone through its usual channels of sending Hill-wide e-mails and no member had access to the closed list.

Those present at the meeting included OCHC members, Director of Office of Residential Life Suzanne Seplow, advisor to OCHC Cheryl Sims, Dean of Students Robert Naples and USAC President Allende Palma/Saracho, who had brought the infringement to the attention of the administrators.

Brad Stauber, OCHC chairman, stressed that OCHC did not have access to any student e-mail addresses and that the e-mail was submitted to OCHC adviser Cheryl Sims, who works with a representative from the Office of Residential Life and Student Technology Center.

Sims did not return phone calls for comment.

OCHC had used e-mail in the past in order to make its endorsements public. Stauber said the switch to e-mail was made after there were problems with the former way OCHC advertised endorsements by putting fliers up on doors of residents on the Hill. Putting up fliers was in violation of the Elections Code, as the residence halls are not considered public spaces.

“We want to emphasize that we do and will continue to work for the best interest of students,” Stauber said, adding that the serious allegations made against his council outraged him.

After complaints surfaced, Nathan Lam, the Elections Board Chairman, immediately took action against OCHC and sanctioned its involvement in the endorsement process for the remainder of the election period.

In an attempt to compensate for the original e-mail, OCHC sent out another e-mail including the entire list of group endorsements for all four runoff candidates, which include Student Power! presidential candidate Jenny Wood and Jeannie Biniek, candidate for external vice president.

“(The Elections Board) came down heavy because this was something that could easily sway the election results,” Lam said.

As a part of the Elections Board sanctions, both Bruin United candidates will have to miss out on eight hours of campaign time and will not be allowed to campaign in public areas on the Hill until 7 p.m. tonight – the end of the campaign period for all candidates.

Gruenberg said the process is being politicized and said he had “never seen this kind of unfair response.”

Gruenberg added that members of his slate have had discussions with Lam, and said he is under the impression that the Elections Board does not have an interest in readdressing the issue to alleviate the sanctions in place.

Gruenberg and Melgares will still be allowed to campaign as a part of the Bruins United slate, as the Elections Code does not recognize slates.

“It’s disingenuous to just campaign as a slate,” Gruenberg said.

The Election Board also sanctioned Wood and Biniek, whose campaign fliers were found on the doors of the De Neve Plaza residence halls – a private area. Both will consequently have to miss out on three hours and 15 minutes of campaigning time by the end of the voting period.