Courtesy of KRT Campus

MySpace has always been a place for friends.

But Associated Students election committee members decided on this year that it is no place for politics.

Although the committee banned the use of social networking sites in campaigning on March 23, numerous candidates have allowed friends to post messages on their MySpace accounts endorsing their candidacy. This, elections committee members said, is against the new policy governing campaigning on Web sites.

A comment on presidential candidate Matt Keipper’s site reads “vote Matt Keipper for president!!!!!!!!!! P.s YOur signs rock the other ssuck.”

A comment on presidential candidate Daniel Goldberg’s site reads “If SDSU students don’t vote for this player … They’re Gay.”

One of Andrew Roy’s friends stated “OMG I voted for ANDREW ROY!!!”

Multiple posts on executive vice president candidate Amanda Venegas’ site read “Vote Venegas!”

And on the MySpace site of Brian Hamilton, the other executive vice presidential candidate, a friend posted a picture of one of Hamilton’s signs.

“Vote Brian Hamilton 4 Exec VP,” the site reads.

Elections committee member Michelle Hill said that campaigning should not appear anywhere on the candidates MySpace accounts, even if a friend posts an endorsement.

“We would not allow that because you can turn on the option that you have to approve comments,” Hill said. “Since you have control over that, you cannot have your friends posting comments on your MySpace.”

Some candidates said that they did not perceive their friends posting comments on their pages as a violation of elections code.

“I don’t see that as active campaigning,” said Keipper, who also currently serves as vice president of finance. “I see it as one of my friends coming by a space that I consider to be my own, and if someone from the outside public comes by and happens to see it, then so be it.”

Keipper said that this is not the first time this semester that candidates have broken or bent the rules.

“There have been a lot of violations to the elections code, but none of the candidates are filing complaints,” he said. “There has been very little action through the elections committee this year.

“We obviously see it happening and apparently it’s not perceived as threatening to the candidates if we’re not filing (complaints).”

Hamilton said that he was unaware of the picture posted on his message board last week, although he logged on to his account as recently as yesterday.

“It’s almost impossible to control,” Hamilton said. “I was unaware those are on there, i’ll have to delete them.”

Hamilton subsequently removed all references to his campaign, shortly after being contacted by The Daily Aztec.

Business marketing senior and elections committee member Maribel Urena said that the candidates who do have Facebook and MySpace profiles should set their comments to private so that they can pre-approve any comment made on their page. This way they do not run the risk of getting in trouble for someone commenting on the election.

The consequence for violating the rule is disqualification, pending a two-thirds vote from the elections committee.

The other candidates who had messages posted on their sites were not immediately available for comment.

Although grievances have been scarcer this year than in previous years, three complaints were put before the elections committee yesterday, all of which were unrelated to the rules governing social networking sites.

Goldberg filed one complaint about some of his signs gone missing, and another about a person wearing one of Keipper’s campaign T-shirts in Mission Valley.

A member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, of which both Keipper and Roy belong, filed the third complaint against Goldberg for posting a sign that stated, “Do you really want a Lambda Chi for president?”

The complaints committee members issued Goldberg a reprimand for his campaigning violation.

They did not take action on the missing sign, and they acknowledged the complaint about the T-shirt being worn at an off-campus site.

The committee warned candidates to be cautious about campaigning off campus.

-Senior Staff Writer Stephanie Nehmens contributed to this report.