In last week's Student Union elections for senator at large, Jamie Ansorge '09 was found to have violated an election rule, which prohibits the use of campaign materials not provided by the Union, officials said. The violation occurred when Ansorge's friend used staples to tack fliers to residence hall doors. The Union provides masking tape for fliers, but not staples.

The violation was reported anonymously to chief elections commissioner Darren Gallant '08.

"I found it unfortunate and was disappointed because I know [Ansorge] and knew some sort of action was going to have to be taken," Gallant wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.

Gallant consulted with other elections commissioners and e-mailed Ansorge to inform him of the violation.

As penalty, next to Ansorge's name on the Student Union candidate profiles Web page, in red letters, a message read: "This candidate has violated one or more election rules."

"I was dismayed, I was worried," Ansorge said. "It looked really bad."

The message was posted after the first round of the election, in which Ansorge finished second to Shreeya Sinha '09, but ahead of Andrew Brooks '09, by two votes. After receiving 284 votes in the first round, Ansorge received 252 in the second, putting him in third place behind Brooks. Sinha and Brooks won the election.

"That very clearly cost me the election," he said. "My image around Brandeis is literally tarred from this."

Brooks disagreed. "I don't think it played as big of a role as some people asserted," he said. "In the end people voted for the person they liked."

Brooks also pointed out that students don't automatically view the violation message prior to voting.

Gallant said of the violation: "While it was minor, it clearly states that using resources outside of those available from the Union is a violation of the election rules."

Although Ansorge was soured by the outcome, he chose not to contest the election results, despite the advice of several Union senators to the contrary.

"I had some really high aspirations for the Union, but I have been discouraged to say the least," he said.

Ansorge said that a number of other violations were incurred by several of the other candidates, the most serious of which is that some candidates may have used more than the 200 flyers allotted for elections.

"[Elections commissioners] are just enforcing the rules," Ansorge said. "At least if they're going to take [minor violations] to this level, they need to do it fairly.