Anonymous flier causes legal action
Campus Conservatives and Dennis Lennox II have filed their second complaint in two weeks with the state, alleging violations of campaign finance law on campus.
This time, an anonymous flier urging student voter registration in the Volunteer Center has drawn the Campus Conservatives' ire. The flier lists an Obama campaign Web site at the bottom.
That is a violation of Michigan Campaign Finance Law, which prohibits state entities from engaging in partisan politics, said Lennox, a Topinabee senior and group spokesman.
"You can't even use CMU e-mail for partisan political purposes," he said. "State law is quite clear."
Lennox mailed a formal compliant against the CMU administration to the Secretary of State's regulatory services office in Lansing on Thursday, exactly one week after he mailed a similar complaint against Students for Barack Obama.
The previous complaint, on Sept. 18, alleged that booking procedures for a campus rally to register voters, featuring Black Eyed Peas performer Will.i.am and hip-hop actress Tatyana Ali, violated campaign finance law.
Tony Voisin, director of Student Life, which runs the Volunteer Center, had never seen Thursday's flier before and said that it was likely produced by a third party.
"This is not something produced or distributed by the Volunteer Center," Voisin said. "You can't register to vote at the Volunteer Center, anyway."
Lennox said Campus Conservatives noticed one of the fliers in Anspach Hall on Wednesday night. One was posted in Moore Hall on Thursday, but none could be found in either the Bovee University Center or the Charles V. Park Library.
The flier sports images of both presidential candidates, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Barack Obama, D-Ill. It urges students to register by Oct. 6, the registration deadline, and gives the Volunteer Center location.
On the bottom is a Web site, voteforchange.com, which carries a paid-for by Obama for America disclaimer.
"Judging from the amount of resistance we've gotten from the school on any kind of cooperation in the past, I really doubt that they'd be telling students to register with us," said Matthew Sous, president of Students for Barack Obama and Freeland senior.
Lennox said he informed Dean of Students Bruce Roscoe via e-mail about the complaint.
The process of complaint review can be lengthy and requires mediated back-and-forth responses from both parties, said Michigan Secretary of State spokesman Ken Silfven.
"There could be a fine involved," Silfven said. "It's also possible that it could be resolved through informal means."
Sous said his group has received no official communication from the university or the state about the Sept. 18 complaint, said Silfven.
"I have to admit, (Lennox) is successful in misleading people to think a bias community or illegal activity happens here, but it's not true," Sous said. "It's just political tactics that, quite frankly, is the reason a lot of people just get sick of politics."
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