Student Association’s Board of Elections and Membership Committee found junior Eduardo Gomez’s campaign for comptroller in violation of bylaws after an individual associated with the campaign spread falsified information to influence the election, according to an SA report.

Gomez’s campaign was suspended at 11:35 p.m. on April 11, the last night of SA elections, according to an email sent by Sophia Faram, BEM chair. Faram announced Gomez’s suspension only 19 minutes before polls closed. An individual connected to his campaign “slandered an opponent in order to gain an unfair advantage,” she said.

The suspension was the outcome of a full BEM investigation into Gomez’s campaign. BEM’s investigation finished April 11, and the report was released on Tuesday. The report does not name the opponent that was slandered. Junior Stacy Omosa was the only comptroller candidate besides Gomez. Omosa won the election by 99 votes.

The investigation’s report said that an individual connected to Gomez’s campaign spread falsified information to members of SU’s Greek life community over campus media platforms and message forums. The information was meant to give Omosa a negative reputation in SU’s Greek life community, according to the report.

The individual spreading the message was not a direct member of Gomez’s campaign staff, but had a close enough connection to the campaign for his actions to be in violation of SA’s bylaws, according to the report.

The report said that the falsified information was sent to “unfairly alter the outcome of the Comptroller election.” The campaign was found guilty of breaking three SA bylaws:

Anna Henderson | Digital Design Editor

Published on April 24, 2019 at 10:07 pm

Contact Gabe: gkstern@syr.edu | @gabestern326