When the Student Association election polls opened Tuesday at 10 a.m., the Progress party's candidates for president and vice president had it easy - they were the only top job hopefuls on the ballot.
The Greater Tomorrow party's duo, Robert Mercurio and Scott Swamback, vying for president and vice president respectively, resigned from the race on Monday.
Christopher Mendoza, the leader of UB Redefine, was also absent from the field of candidates, but not by choice. The candidate was ruled in violation of university rules and regulations according to Jennifer K. Wantz, assistant director of Student Life.
Students running for SA offices must, among other qualifications, be enrolled in good standing at UB. When the Redefine candidate was thrown off campus, he was ineligible to run for president.
Mendoza was not added to the ballot until approximately 4 p.m. Tuesday when his suspension from UB was temporarily lifted.
"He's now eligible to run, and he's now allowed to campaign," Wantz said.
According to an incident report filed by University Police, Mendoza was arrested and charged with unlawful dealing with a child, and issued an appearance ticket to Amherst Town Court. The charge was a result of several intoxicated individuals - at least one of which was a minor - in his apartment early Sunday morning.
Officers were responding to Mendoza's apartment in Hadley Village on a noise complaint.
The report states that five individuals were also taken to the Erie County Medical Center and referred to the Student-wide Judiciary (SWJ) for alcohol overdose.
According to Mendoza, the incident in question occurred after he had gone to bed for the night.
"I was sleeping in my room when the officers came over... They asked, and I said 'this is my apartment,' and that was enough. That's all they needed to hear," he said.
Mendoza said that all but one of the five people who treated for alcohol overdose were 21 or over.
"I have nothing to hide and I did nothing wrong... I'm confident of my defense and innocence. I know all charges will be dropped."
He added that the one person under the age of 21 that was in the apartment was intoxicated before arriving.
"I have a notarized statement from (him) saying that he was drinking prior to coming there," he said.
Mendoza said that his supporters, as well as voters new to the race, would give him the boost he needs to stay the course, even after his late start.
"I lost eight hours on the floor," Mendoza said. "But there's two more days left... I'm confident I'll be able to regain the ground I've lost."
Peter Grollitsch, Progress' presidential candidate, said that he is sure the university made the decision to suspend Mendoza and thus make him ineligible for a reason.
"I think that there's a reason this happened, and that the university didn't allow him to run today," he said, adding that he didn't want to judge the situation too critically as he wasn't sure of all the facts involved.
Grollitsch said that he was also concerned with the neutrality of the officials running the electoral polls.
"Apparently there were polling people saying 'If you can't vote for Redefine, you can't vote,'" he explained. He added that the situation necessitated further examination, and also that he would not let any of the election incidents make him too comfortable as a candidate.
"We didn't give up or leave because we still had the rest of the ticket to take care of," he said. "It was a hard fight today. It'll be a hard fight for the next two days."
Mercurio said that he made the decision to drop out of the race on Monday based on several different factors.
"One of the reasons was I'm not 100 percent sure I'm going to be a full-time student in the spring semester. I may have to get a job, might need to be doing something else," he said.
Mercurio added that a position offered by the Schussmeisters Ski Club was a major deciding factor, seeing as it would have conflicted with his role as SA president.
"I felt it would be irresponsible for me to continue," he said. "In the event that I had won, the one percent chance that I wouldn't be able to come back was a big enough chance to put SA in a serious situation."
He said that he was not happy, but not sad about the decision, and would not officially endorse any candidate.
"I still work in the office with lots of these people," he said. "I don't want to do anything to compromise that by backing one party."
However, Mercurio's running mate, Scott Swamback, said that after meeting with the members of the Progress party, he found himself pleased with their apparent honesty.
"In general, I was happy with the way they were running things," he said. "It's upsetting that I had to resign. I felt that we did have a fairly decent chance, but as far as where we're at right now, I fully support Peter (Grollitsch) and the entire Progress party."
