Flaxman '07 drops out of presidential race

Freddy Flaxman '07 withdrew from the USG presidential race Friday after the USG sharply rebuked him for violating election rules and rejected a subsequent appeal.

This marks the second consecutive year in which Flaxman has been reprimanded by USG elections managers for campaign conduct.

"[The] elections process [is] rife with injustice, unfairness, and corruption," Flaxman said in an email Friday afternoon to supporters announcing his withdrawal. "As this is the case, the USG is not a body that I would like to be a part of."

"The elections have to be fair, or else the entire government is illegitimate," Flaxman added in an interview Friday evening. "I have no animosity toward specific members of the USG. The election process was flawed and unfair, and it is because of this that I choose not to be part of the election."

USG President Leslie-Bernard Joseph '06 defended the organization against Flaxman's accusations, saying in an interview Friday evening, "I'm disappointed with Freddy's email [to supporters] because I don't think it depicts what transpired."

"Ultimately, I take full responsibility for any shortcomings or any issues that students have with the [USG]," Joseph said, but Flaxman's allegations are "essentially something that is untrue."

After receiving 49 penalty points for violating restrictions on postering — just short of the 50 required to disqualify a candidate — Flaxman appealed the decision, arguing that the election managers had relied on "dubious evidence" consisting primarily of photographs taken by another candidate.

In his interview Friday, Flaxman said: "The fact is that the flyers could have been posted by anyone."

But Flaxman's appeal was rejected and the original decision assigning him 49 points was upheld. Flaxman withdrew a subsequent request for a second appeal and dropped out of the race.

Flaxman also received 49 points in the 2004 vice-presidential election for an email that USG elections managers interpreted as implying that the Jadwin Jungle, a basketball fan club Flaxman founded, may cease to exist if he were not elected.

"If elected, I would be able to make sure the Jungle continues to exist and provides the same great rewards that it now offers as well as even better ones in the future," Flaxman said in the email.

This year's dispute involved election rules stipulating that candidates cannot put their posters over those of other candidates and can only put up one poster per bulletin board.

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The alleged violations were investigated thoroughly by the election managers, Joseph said. Even if the fliers had been maliciously posted by someone else, he added, Flaxman was notified of all the violations and had 18 hours to remove the double postings. Flaxman did not, Joseph said, citing a notice about an infraction well after Flaxman had been notified, and that alone would have disqualified him according to election rules.

But Flaxman maintained that he and his staff walked around to "every location the elections managers cited to take the posters down."

Joseph also said that some of the senators hearing the case came to believe that Flaxman had misled them and the election managers. Though members of Flaxman's campaign admitted to the USG panel that they had double-posted, Flaxman denied this before the body, Joseph said.

But Flaxman responded with accusations of his own.

In the email to supporters, he alleged that the USG had violated election rules in the composition of the election committee, citing the USG constitution, which states that the "elections managers shall be the three most senior elected members of the USG Executive Committee who are not currently running for election."

An overhaul of rules approved in 2002 states, however, that the three-member committee shall be comprised of a senior election manager, who is a top USG officer but not the president, and two deputy managers.

Flaxman also argued that a major conflict of interest exists because an elections manager, Jesse Creed '07, is the roommate of a presidential candidate, Tom Brown '07, who currently serves as USG undergraduate life chair.

"How can it not be a conflict of interest?" Flaxman said. "The fact that a conflict of interest could exist should result in the selection of a new elections manager."

But Joseph cited an email communication with Flaxman — a copy of which was provided to The Daily Princetonian — about the potential conflict before the election process began, in which Joseph reassured him about the concerns and Flaxman thanked him for considering the issue.

"I just want to make it perfectly clear that the USG ... handles all its procedures with care," Joseph said. "Everyone was voted onto that body in adherence with the rules without getting to the number of points Freddy has ... Everything that has been done has been thought through and thought through carefully."