UPDATED: GUSA Election Results Postponed
The winner of the GUSA presidential election will be announced at tomorrow's GUSA Senate meeting, according to election commissioner Maura Cassidy (COL '08).
The announcement, originally scheduled for Friday, was postponed after the election commission received multiple complaints regarding the election.
"The Election Commission has received several inquiries and complaints about this year's election. In order to follow up and investigate each claim adequately, the Election Commission has decided, in accordance with the Student Association bylaws, to delay the announcement of results until early next week," Cassidy said in an e-mail.
The Election Commission declined to comment further on specific complaints.
The deadline for candidates to file complaints was Friday at 4:59 p.m.
Editor's note: This article was last updated on Feb. 24, 2008 at 9:45 p.m. Want to discuss these elections further? Visit www.thehoya.com/blog







I think it's important to note that the delay in results is fairly routine. The way the system works, people have up until 459 PM the day after the election to file "complaints" with the Election Commission. Complaints typically consist of something like "We heard about people campaigning after the campaign period had ended" or "We heard about people using unapproved materials."
If no complaints are received by 459 PM the day after, then the results are announced at 5 PM. However, if one or more complaints are brought to the EC's attention, then the results typically get delayed by a few days so that the EC can do due diligence and look into the issues before announcing the winner. Almost always, these complaints just need to be checked out and don't result in any changes to the actual election, but if a complaint is filed at 2 PM for a 459 PM deadline, there often isn't enough time to resolve the complaints by 5 PM since it usually involves checking with a few different people.
I'm just speculating, but I would guess that the weekend also is partly to blame for the delay since the university is closed, some admins didn't make it onto campus on Friday due to the ice, and the tech people aren't around (if it's a technology problem) or possibly not everyone on the Election Commission is on campus. That may be why the delay is to Tuesday rather than, say, Saturday.
So yeah, the delay is routine and in the past final results have usually taken a few days to be announced. The 5 PM-day-after rule is the deadline for filing complaints rather than the deadline for announcing results. The delay is do to due diligence and the need to give an equal opportunity for all parties to be consulted on potential issues.
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