Senate returns to paper ballots
Past online technical issues create unease
McLean Bennett
Issue date: 3/12/09 Section: Campus News
Student Senate gave a vote of no-confidence Monday to using electronic ballots in next month's elections.
The governing body rejected a resolution to collect votes online in the upcoming race, choosing to use old-fashioned paper ballots instead.
Opponents of the online election cited a pair of recent online votes that were snared by technological
problems, including last spring's senate race.
"This was an absolute disaster for Senate public relations last year," Sen. Aaron Brewster said of online voting. "An absolute disaster."
Last year's online senate race saw presidential-vice presidential candidates Tim Lauer and Meghan Charlier claim a 24-vote victory over Emily Mattheisen and Caroline Wee, according to an April 17, 2008, article in The Spectator.
But the race was plagued by technical difficulties that allowed faculty and staff to vote and prevented some students from voting, according to the same article, which also reported that Senate later identified three illegitimate votes.
More concerns were raised when The Spectator reported that then-Sen. Jacob Boer said he had clicked "submit" on at least 30 online ballots, and that some senators had set up computers to allow students to vote and were present as students voted.
This November an online referendum seeking students' approval to raise segregated fees also ran into technical trouble, according to an article in The Spectator.
Nearly 2,000 students were initially unable to respond to the referendum, and some alumni were given the link to the survey by mistake, according to the story.
Supporters of an online election this year said Monday that many of the earlier problems have been dealt with and that a new online survey program, Qualtrics, is more reliable than the university's previous WebSurvey program.
Supporters also said Qualtrics' client list - which, according to the company's Web site, includes Apple, Cargill, the Federal Reserve Board, Forbes, IBM, Intel, Microsoft and the World Health Organization, among other big names - was reason enough to consider using the program in the election.
The governing body rejected a resolution to collect votes online in the upcoming race, choosing to use old-fashioned paper ballots instead.
Opponents of the online election cited a pair of recent online votes that were snared by technological
problems, including last spring's senate race.
"This was an absolute disaster for Senate public relations last year," Sen. Aaron Brewster said of online voting. "An absolute disaster."
Last year's online senate race saw presidential-vice presidential candidates Tim Lauer and Meghan Charlier claim a 24-vote victory over Emily Mattheisen and Caroline Wee, according to an April 17, 2008, article in The Spectator.
But the race was plagued by technical difficulties that allowed faculty and staff to vote and prevented some students from voting, according to the same article, which also reported that Senate later identified three illegitimate votes.
More concerns were raised when The Spectator reported that then-Sen. Jacob Boer said he had clicked "submit" on at least 30 online ballots, and that some senators had set up computers to allow students to vote and were present as students voted.
This November an online referendum seeking students' approval to raise segregated fees also ran into technical trouble, according to an article in The Spectator.
Nearly 2,000 students were initially unable to respond to the referendum, and some alumni were given the link to the survey by mistake, according to the story.
Supporters of an online election this year said Monday that many of the earlier problems have been dealt with and that a new online survey program, Qualtrics, is more reliable than the university's previous WebSurvey program.
Supporters also said Qualtrics' client list - which, according to the company's Web site, includes Apple, Cargill, the Federal Reserve Board, Forbes, IBM, Intel, Microsoft and the World Health Organization, among other big names - was reason enough to consider using the program in the election.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 5
Jacob Boer
posted 3/12/09 @ 7:02 PM CST
Awesome! I graduated nearly a year ago and the spectator is still knocking my name around!
Fact check guys, I wasn't a student senator at the time of the election. (Continued…)
Bearc1aw
posted 3/12/09 @ 8:59 PM CST
Jacob your remembered as the person who tainted an election, but your worried about being called a senator.
Bearc1aw
posted 3/13/09 @ 5:21 AM CST
I'm not saying that the election didn't have it's problems, that they should or shouldn't use paper ballots, or commenting on the coverage. If you want to go into all of this then fine, I am just saying that you are remembered as the person that tainted the election and you know what? You did. (Continued…)
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