GUSA Election Results Certified

Brian Morgenstern (COL ’05) and Steve de Man (COL ’04) were sworn in as Student Association president and vice president at a GUSA meeting on Tuesday, Mar. 4, after the assembly voted to ratify the election results. The certification came after intense debate from students and candidates alleging voting irregularities and some calling for a second election.

“We believe that the election was conducted in a manner that was fair and legitimate,” Election Commissioner Ramya Murali (SFS ’03) said.

After the election commission used an incomplete list to send the e-mail ballot to undergraduate students on Feb. 24, the commission extended voting until Feb. 25 to allow those who had not received the e-mail ballot a chance to vote. Some students, however, still contend that they never received a ballot.

Justin Palmer (COL ’03), administrator of the Saxa Server that is used to conduct the online election, said that students with a full e-mailbox would not have been able to receive the e-mail ballot. Students also incorrectly entered their net ID when registering to vote, he added. Election officials were unaware of any voting difficulties outside of these two situations.

GUSA representatives discovered at the meeting that one student was not on the current university master list, something previously unknown to election officials. Officials stated that there could have been no way to send a ballot to someone that the university did not have on its master list and that there would have been no way for them to know of this without students contacting them on election day.

Assembly members also explained that while election officials had done all they could to ensure a fair election, students still unable to vote should have taken responsibility to correct the problem by contacting Murali or Palmer.

“A phone call to the GUSA office would have solved all of this,” Kaydee Bridges (SFS ’03), outgoing GUSA president, said.

Murali reiterated that she had done everything possible to conduct a fair election. “We did everything in our power, from what you [students] told us and from what the university told us, to hold a fair and legitimate election,” she said.

Murali also explained how election bylaws both helped and hindered election officials to ensure the legitimacy of the election. “The bylaws helps us in some areas and hold us back in others,” she said. “One of these areas where we are held back is that the election commission can only hear complaints until 8 p.m. on election day.”

After nearly 90 minutes of heated debate on the anticipated certification of the election results, representatives decided to certify the vote with seven in favor, five opposed and one abstention.

Senior representative and Assembly Co-chair Squid Quinonez (COL ’03) asked those who were involved in any campaign to abstain from the vote, but only one member, presidential candidate Rob Hutton (SFS ’04), abstained.

Hutton later spoke out against the certification of the results. “We failed tonight to represent the student body,” he said. “We voted too soon.” He said that he had begun work to help reform the election laws.

After certification, Bridges and outgoing GUSA vice president Mason Ayer (SFS ’03) swore in Morgenstern and de Man, and the losing candidates congratulated the incoming executives.

Morgenstern said that he and de Man would appoint an election reform working group to clarify election bylaws for the 2003-04 school year.

GUSA representatives hinted at using only paper ballots for the upcoming class representative elections due to the dissatisfaction by some students with the online election.

Murali defended the online election system, citing both lower voter turnout and the greater effort required in conducting a paper ballot election. “We conduct elections online because it gives the greatest number of students the opportunity to vote in the easiest way possible,” she said.

After the extension of voting on Feb. 24, the election remained shrouded in controversy when campaign managers for both losing tickets said that they had been disqualified for sending e-mails that violated campaign laws.

Murali would not confirm the disqualification. “We decided to keep quiet with that information and gave them [the disqualified candidates] the option to come forward with that information,” she said.

Morgenstern and de Man said that they look forward to the next year and encourage students to apply for the nearly 150 appointed positions, extending the Mar. 6 deadline until yesterday.

Morgenstern and de Man won 34.8 percent of the 2,756 votes cast in the election. Hutton and Nazareth Haysbert (SFS ’05) received 28.8 percent of the vote and Steve Palmese (MSB ’04) and Tim Nunziata (MSB ’04) received 27 percent of the vote.