Apologies from the UA Election Commission

[Leonid Grinberg]

Dear Undergrads,

My sincerest apologies for yet another UA elections-related email.

Earlier this morning, not long after voting opened, most if not all of you
received an email encouraging you to vote for Jeffrey Sperling and Nathan
Varady, candidates for UA President/Vice President. The email was addressed
to you individually and the opening named you personally.

A number of you have written in to complain about this campaign, indicating
that you felt the email was invasive and unnecessarily spammy. I agree. I
want to assure you that neither the UA Election Commission nor any other
part of the UA was involved in this campaign and did not provide the
candidates with the list of undergraduate emails or names. The candidates
generated their own list by means of scripting access to MIT's people
directory in violation of the MITNet Rules of
Use<https://ist.mit.edu/network/rules>.
Additionally, the broad campaign itself was in violation of the UA Election
Code's prohibition against excessive emailing. The candidates have been
notified that they may no longer use electronic communication with voters
as part of their campaign for the duration of the voting period.

The UA takes privacy and spam very seriously. We try to send out emails to
the entire undergraduate body as infrequently as possible and always
include an opt-out link at the bottom. If you have any further questions or
concerns, please do not hesitate to email the UA Election Commission at
ua-elect at mit.edu.

Apologies once again, and have a good day.

Regards,

Leonid Grinberg
Chair, UA Election Commission
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