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Grievances filed in Student Senate elections
Senate still dealing with close outcome of presidential election, ethics being questioned
Nicole Strittmater
Issue date: 4/21/08 Section: News
After a narrow margin of 24 votes and ethical questions coming into play, the Student Senate elections committee is reviewing grievances filed, President Ray French said.
Presidential elect Tim Lauer and vice presidential re-elect Meghan Charlier won with 1,201 votes, while hopefuls Emily Mattheisen and Caroline Wee received 1,177 in the first electronic voting general election.
From Monday to Wednesday, voters could follow a link sent to them via e-mail to cast their vote. However, several technological glitches with the WebSurvey system kept the process from running smoothly.
While 25 percent of the student body voted, the largest turnout in 15 years, some members of Senate are questioning the integrity of the election.
"That really small margin almost makes it harder to deal with," Mattheisen said, who was upset early Thursday morning when she heard the results.
Mattheisen said she received several e-mails from students who weren't able to log into the WebSurvey system to vote.
French said one of the major concerns is that a former senator, senior Jacob Boer, was quoted in Thursday's issue of The Spectator as saying he clicked 'submit' at least 30 times.
Charlier said she thinks that defeats the whole purpose of students voting.
"None of the campaigns supported that or told him to do that. I think that has been very clear on both sides," she said. "While I don't think that's OK, it definitely showed us that we need to make changes."
Boer said Sunday that he exaggerated.
"For the presidential race, I never clicked for anyone at all," he said. "In defense of myself, as soon as someone logs in and says 'Hey, you can fill it out for me' they have free will. That's what our election allowed. I was trying to make a point that this isn't really a fair election."
French said he can't elaborate on the grievances filed, but he knows the integrity of the election was compromised.
"I think this was a learning experience. There were faults on both sides … as in shady election procedures that may or may not have been ethical," he said.
Presidential elect Tim Lauer and vice presidential re-elect Meghan Charlier won with 1,201 votes, while hopefuls Emily Mattheisen and Caroline Wee received 1,177 in the first electronic voting general election.
From Monday to Wednesday, voters could follow a link sent to them via e-mail to cast their vote. However, several technological glitches with the WebSurvey system kept the process from running smoothly.
While 25 percent of the student body voted, the largest turnout in 15 years, some members of Senate are questioning the integrity of the election.
"That really small margin almost makes it harder to deal with," Mattheisen said, who was upset early Thursday morning when she heard the results.
Mattheisen said she received several e-mails from students who weren't able to log into the WebSurvey system to vote.
French said one of the major concerns is that a former senator, senior Jacob Boer, was quoted in Thursday's issue of The Spectator as saying he clicked 'submit' at least 30 times.
Charlier said she thinks that defeats the whole purpose of students voting.
"None of the campaigns supported that or told him to do that. I think that has been very clear on both sides," she said. "While I don't think that's OK, it definitely showed us that we need to make changes."
Boer said Sunday that he exaggerated.
"For the presidential race, I never clicked for anyone at all," he said. "In defense of myself, as soon as someone logs in and says 'Hey, you can fill it out for me' they have free will. That's what our election allowed. I was trying to make a point that this isn't really a fair election."
French said he can't elaborate on the grievances filed, but he knows the integrity of the election was compromised.
"I think this was a learning experience. There were faults on both sides … as in shady election procedures that may or may not have been ethical," he said.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 2
Micah Clemens
posted 4/22/08 @ 5:16 PM CST
I hate to think that Zimbabwe is looking pretty good right now...
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