In a move that left some Student Council (StuCo) members questioning last week's freshman elections, the Board of Elections (BoE) did not disclose the exact number of votes received by each candidate to the public.
The BoE made their presentation to StuCo Tuesday night, setting off 45 minutes of debate between the two groups.
Co-chairs of the BoE, Matt Bouloubasis and Rick Aseltine, have proposed a new constitution that would alter the power of the BoE to determine the outcome of future elections.
Six freshman candidates were disqualified for failing to turn in spending reports.
Five of those students were reinstated after the vote count showed that they had lost.
According to Aseltine, the BoE took action this Tuesday because it would not affect the outcome of the recent election. The sixth candidate, Elizabeth Fialkowski, was disqualified from her position as representative.
At Tuesday's StuCo meeting, members questioned why the BoE would withhold election results from the public.
StuCo President Charles Reyner asked Bouloubasis, "How can you prove that someone won without releasing the numbers?"
Bouloubasis reminded StuCo that despite the fact that the BoE has released complete vote tallies in years past, the BoE was not required to do so.
The BoE said that they "anticipate releasing it [the vote counts]" to the public within the next week, but that "there is no guarantee," Aseltine said. He added that the BoE is currently debating their policy on the release of vote counts. They want to solidify this decision before choosing to release the full results of this year's freshman elections.
The BoE is also debating whether to revert to the single transferable vote (STV) system that was used in previous years. Under the STV system, voters ranked candidates in order of preference, rather than selecting only their top choice for each position.
Another possibility under consideration by the seven members of the BoE is a "hybrid" system in which voters submit their first and second candidate choices for each office.
Both Aseltine and Bouloubasis maintain that candidates could have seen vote tallies for winners and losers alike if they had e-mailed the BoE.
However, Aseltine later added that candidates had not been informed of this right. "We didn't see a need for it. I would think that's assumed," he said.
Reyner echoed a sentiment that the public needed to see the exact number of votes received by each candidate. "It gives people legitimate grounds to call for a recount," he said.
According to the rules posted on the BoE's Web site, a request for a recount must be filed within 48 hours of the posting of election results.
Earlier this week, Bouloubasis said that there is no opportunity for a recall or recount of the votes.
"It's set in stone at this point," he said.
Tensions between StuCo and the BoE came to a head during the long debate over the new BoE constitution.
The BoE's constitution is a set of duties and membership guidelines and is subject to approval by StuCo.
By-laws, however, outline the specific methods for collecting votes and determining winners and is not under the authority of StuCo.
The reason for this separation is that sitting members of StuCo who plan to run for re-election have a vested interest in influencing the BoE's by-laws.
"I think that Student Council should be hands-off. If they're not, it's like StuCo is running its own election,"he said.
Junior Class Representative Russell Hayden took issue with the current implementation.
"The way it stands, with that constitution they can make by-laws that say that they only have to announce the winners, and then the student population has no possible way to tell whether it was fair."
Another sticking point for StuCo was a new provision regarding the appointment of BoE members.
The new BoE constitution states that the Committee on Leadership Appointments (COLA), "shall make every effort to nominate ...students with prior election experience, as members of the Board [of Elections]."
In addition, the BoE co-chairs want to be able to make appointments themselves if COLA fails to approve five BoE members by the second week of the fall semester.
This measure would allow the BoE to efficiently manage the freshman elections, which occur early in the academic year.
StuCo members were concerned that this rule limited their ability to approve the best possible BoE members.
