SGA presidential candidate Kofi Mensah has been taken off the ballot and will be running as a write-in candidate.According to the SGA website, Mensah did not comply with a sanction imposed by the SGA elections committee to take down all campaign materials.Mensah said he received an email from Katie Rifken, Chair of the Elections Committee, early on March 23 informing him that he had been removed from the ballot.”Since Monday morning, the Elections Committee has received numerous images of campaign materials found in at least five locations on the University of Vermont Campus,” the email stated. “The persistence of these campaign materials on campus is a direct violation of the sanction.”The sanctions stated that Mensah was to take down all campaign materials after he was accused of overspending the allotted campaign budget of $150, Mensah said.”To the best of my ability I have removed every single flier that I have put up on this campus,” he said. “It was an unfair request to take them all down.”The SGA website states “all campaign materials relating to a candidate’s election are the responsibility of the candidate, regardless of who posted them and where they were posted.”Mensah said he was concerned that some of his fliers may have been moved without his knowing.”Anyone could have called and said there were fliers up when they weren’t. Anyone can put up, take down, or move a flier,” he said. “I am not saying someone did; I am saying how is anyone so sure someone didn’t.”Both candidates have expressed concern that the elections have been negatively affected by the controversy surrounding the sanctioning situation.”I am extraordinarily frustrated and worried that the sanctioning process has taken away from the legitimacy of this election,” Chervier said. “I wish that the issue was about who was more qualified and what each candidate wants to do with the presidency.”Mensah plans to appeal the decision at the SGA meeting on Tuesday night on the grounds that all flyers were taken down to the best of his abilities, he said.
