Controversy taints elections - Election results contested

Class of 2004 President-elect Simone Chen and Vice President-elect Jackie Chan are appealing the results of this year's Student Council (StuCo) class elections, which were surrounded by controversy concerning write-in voting procedures.

Chen and Chan submitted an appeal to Director of Student Life Jeffrey Groden-Thomas yesterday contesting the election of two write-in candidates for Class of 2004 Representative. According to Chen, Representative-elects Raj Chopra and Prashanth Rao, who received eight write-in votes each, did not obtain the minimum number of votes required for election.

Board of Election (BoE) Chairpersons Judy Tomkins and Mary Keough interpreted the rules differently, saying the candidates received adequate votes to be elected through the write-in procedure.

Chen and Chan said the BoE rules stipulate that a write-in candidate cannot be elected without 25 percent of all votes cast for that position. Tomkins and Keough said write-in candidates are eligible to win as long as they receive 25 percent of all write-in votes for the position.

Due to a lack of official candidates, or candidates listed on the ballot, the results for five positions were determined this year by write-in votes. In addition to Chopra and Rao, Class of 2005 President-elect Iverson Long and Secretary/Treasurer-elect Shivani Kathuria were write-in candidates, receiving 25 and 22 votes, respectively, as was Class of 2005 Representative-elect Vidya Mahdevan, who received 19 votes.

According to Chen, the BoE did not follow their constitution word-for-word, but instead interpreted the rules "as they sought fit."

"What [the BoE] has done is in direct violation of what is stated in their constitution," said Chen.

The Appeals Committee, comprised of Groden-Thomas, StuCo President Manish Gala and Associate Dean of Students Dorothy Sheppard, was scheduled to meet today to discuss the appeal and vote on its validity.

According to BoE Chairperson Judy Tomkins, write-in candidates are normally at a disadvantage compared to official candidates.

"They're not on the ballot, they don't have a candidate's statement in the News-Letter, they don't have a Web site," said Tomkins. "I mean, they're at a tremendous disadvantage."

The large number of open positions in this election, however, put "all write-in candidates...basically on the same playing field," according to Keough.

"They have campaigning privileges," said Keough. "They're not required to hand in spending reports like legitimate candidates would be."

Write-in candidates are also exempt from obtaining signatures and attending information sessions.

The other Class of 2004 Representative-elect was Stephen Blank, an official candidate who received 45 votes. Michelle Cohen won for Class of 2004 Secretary/Treasurer with 50 votes. Other Class of 2005 officers elected were Brian Drolet for Vice President with 65 votes and Steven Popowski for Class Representative with 64 votes. There were not enough votes to fill the third Representative position.

Winners for the class of 2006 were Christal Ng as president with 285 votes, Hallie Jackson for vice president with 291 votes and Rob Freundlich for secretary/treasurer with 278 votes. Representatives elected were Gavin Maguire with 248 votes, Robert Huang with 140 votes and Meghan McIntosh with 89 votes.

The voter turnout for the elections was 34 percent for the sophomore class, 20 percent for the junior class and 9 percent for the senior class.

Tomkins said the low number of official candidates was due to a lack of enthusiasm for this year's elections.

"I think that it was a general apathy that characterized the student body, especially in the upper class elections," said Tomkins. "Historically, there has been very low turnout. The fact that there were 16 candidates after disqualifications for the sophomore class elections, I think, shows the enthusiasm of the current freshmen and the fact that it wasn't necessarily a BoE fault."

The BoE relaxed its campaigning rules in this election to allow candidates to campaign online. Keough said, "In terms of campaigning, we tried to open up campaigning for the candidates a little more by allowing more online campaigning with AIM profiles, away messages, and also with online forums. We allowed candidates to participate in those in order to try to get their name out more and get the word about elections out more."

Keough said the actual voting system did not change since the last election.

Eight candidates were disqualified from the elections for failing to meet standard campaigning requirements, including senior class secretary/treasurer candidate Lindsay Allen, senior class representative candidate Lillian Bourdreaux, junior class president candidate Soren Gandrud, sophomore class president candidates Sasi Goldstein, Quresh Master and Brian Suk, and sophomore class representative candidates Sarah Lash and Deva Roberts. According to Keough, all but one of the disqualified candidates failed to submit spending reports. One of the candidates, whom Keough declined to identify, was disqualified for "blatant disregard for the rules.