And exactly how are you going to enforce this?

The PPT presentation used during the mandatory meeting for ASUA candidates includes a certain explanation of rules concerning Facebook.

• May have Facebook “groups”
• Must be pre-approved by the Commissioner
• May not send out “invites” (You may email individuals)
• Any changes made to online campaign material must be approved by the E.C.
• No message boards on groups (constitutes change)
• Photos must be pre-approved
• May not utilize other Facebook groups to campaign unless they are affiliated with a recognized club or organization, even if you are an “administrator” of the group.
• Get all groups pre-approved by the E.C. if you intend to send listserv-type messages.

No mention of specific Facebook regulations is made in the elections code; it's simply applying the code to Facebook. The 'change' regulation existed last year, preventing candidates from keeping up with current issues efficiently. Now with Facebook, it's a stupid regulation that easy to circumvent: have somebody else not affiliated with you form a group.

Why can't a candidate operate a campaigning blog? What is the elections commissioner (or the Senate) worried about?

Meanwhile, groups from the 2005 campaign still exist all over. See next post for more on that.

Rather than banning such Facebook activity, they ought to ban editing one's face or body next to celebrities. Yes, Michael Franklin's campaign website from last year is still public.