DeKALB – Just as the Student Government Association elections came to a close, a coalition of four SGA candidates received a sanction as a result of a mass-email campaign on behalf of their ticket.

An email was sent by student trustee candidate Tim Moore, who advised students to vote on behalf of the NIUnited ticket consisting of presidential candidate Olivia Newman, vice presidential candidate Kaylin Lee, treasurer Landon Larkin and Moore.

The email was titled “VOTE NOW TO PREVENT DECREASE IN ATHLETIC FUNDING” and encouraged students to vote for the members associated with the NIUnited ticket.

“Please share this with your organizations and encourage them to vote,” reads Moore’s email. “This is a very important election for NIU students’ future. Thanks so much I really appreciate it!!”

NIUnited is a client for The Triple “T” Association, an organization that promotes other student organizations on campus. The organization also sponsors several sports organizations, such as NIU Ultimate Frisbee, NIU Lacrosse and NIU Esports.

This NIUnited email resulted in a reprimand from the SGA Board of Elections, which released an official sanction regarding the matter.

“A member of the NIUnited ticket has been found to be distributing campaign materials to student emails en-mass on behalf of the entire ticket,” the official sanction reads.

According to the official sanction, distributing these campaign materials to students without their consent violates the ethical standards of SGA election policies as well as NIU Code of Conduct.

“In the bylaws, it’s sort of a rule-break during the election. Candidates are allowed five total sanctions across their total ability to campaign, but they’re limited to a number of three during election days,” Election Commissioner Ethan DeMeuse said. “When they accumulate that number of sanctions, then they are disqualified (from the election).”

Each member of the NIUnited ticket received one sanction each as a result of the email.

“That’s their first sanction of the election. If more evidence came in that they received more sanctions then they would have to accumulate two more sanctions to be disqualified,” DeMeuse said. “They would still need two more from the election days, which are now over, to be disqualified.”

Despite the sanction, all members from the NIUnited ticket won their respective elections.

Editor’s note: The NIUnited candidates Newman, Lee, Larkin and Moore declined to comment on the sanctions.