The Government of the Student Body Supreme Court will hold debates on the case of Roling and Dobbels vs. the GSB Election Commission at 5 p.m. in 2133 Gerdin on March 26.

Luke Roling is the president-elect for the 2010-2011 academic year, and Nate Dobbels is vice president-elect.

Roling and Dobbels submitted a Writ of Certiorari that was received by the Court on March 3.The petition against the Election Commission claims the Commission violated a number of aspects of the Election Code, GSB Bylaws and the GSB Constitution in its decision to place $1,950 in penalties against the Roling–Dobbels Campaign.

The first argument in the petition points out a typo: “In Section 8.14 of the 2010 Election Code, ‘Email communications through any Iowa State University list serve shall be prohibited within 24 house of the voting periods and during the voting periods.’ Note that the word ‘house’ is not a valid unit of time.”

The second argument claims the Election Commission did not recognize the Inter-Residence Hall Association as a subsidiary government as delineated by the GSB Constitution.

The petition also claims that Roling and Dobbels are being wrongfully targeted.

“The Roling/Dobbels campaign was targeted by the Election Commission… ,” according to the petition. The Roling/Dobbels campaign should not be punished for shortcomings in election code.”

According to the petition, “A punishment of this extent is not to the benefit of all students, as it punishes the Roling/Dobbels campaign past the extent of “bribery” as outlined in Appendix A of the 2010 Election Code when the violation did not have that significant an impact on all students.”

The petition against the Election Commission claims they did not follow 13.2.10.4 of the GSB bylaws.

“The accused and, if applicable, the accusing party shall be notified within 24 hours of the decision to hold a hearing. The hearing itself shall not be held earlier than 48 hours after the initial notification.”

“This hearing clearly violated the above bylaw intended to allow the Roling/Dobbels campaign adequate time to prepare for the hearing. Mr. Boggess had an interest in attending the hearing, but since the hearing was held within the 48-hour period he was unable to.”

According to the petition, the Election Commission broke GSB bylaws 13.2.10.10 and 13.21.2 as well. According to those sections of the bylaws, the guilty party should be notified within 24 hours, in writing of the violation and the procedure for appealing the decision to the Supreme Court. According to the petition, Roling and Dobbels did not break item 8.2 of the election code by having a candidate or slate by a third party campaigning; the e-mail that was sent out was sent independently of the Roling–Dobbels campaign and was not done on behalf of the slate.

The petition also states that in an e-mail sent on Feb. 25, Jason Boggess asked Election Commissioner Dan Porter if he could use the residence hall mailing list to inform the students about the Roling Dobbels campaign because he had just endorsed them, to which Porter replied, “That’s fine.”

“This clearly shows the Election Commission recognized IRHA was acting of its own accord and not on behalf of the Roling/Dobbels campaign. The commissioner also failed to notify IRHA representatives of the alleged restrictions on campaign email,” according to the petition. The Supreme Court has decided to hear the case, and the next step in the process will be to review the brief arguments, said Chief Justice Brian Phillips. Phillips said the brief from the Roling–Dobbels campaign is due March 21, and Porter’s will be due March 24.

The time in between will give Porter a chance to rebuttal Roling’s brief and will allow the Supreme Court justices time to review each brief separately, Phillips said.

The Roling–Dobbels campaign can’t add arguments to the brief or oral arguments, Phillips said.

Within three days of the debates, which will be held on March 26, the Supreme Court will have completed the opinion of the court, which will decide whether or not the fines will stand.