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Commission cancels ASM elections again

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by Andriy Pazuniak

Thursday, April 6, 2006

For the second time in a week, a computer error forced the cancellation of the Associated Students of Madison spring Student Council election. The error might also threaten the results of the contentious referendum election that ended Tuesday.

Wednesday afternoon, Department of Information Technology officials informed members of the Student Election Commission that a computer error caused a disparity between the number of student votes cast and the number of votes confirmed on its online election database.

DoIT officials said they could not validate those election results because of the discrepancy. The organization recommended the commission cancel the in-progress ASM Student Council election that opened Wednesday morning and proceed with paper ballots at a later date.

During an emergency meeting last night, the election commission voted to do just that.

However, with that decision, the commission is now faced with a bevy of pressing election issues, with the most urgent being completing the election by the end of next week.

Under the ASM Constitution, no elections can be held after the 13th week of a semester.

If no elections are completed by that time, according to Student Judiciary Chief Justice Nick Fox, there would technically be no Student Council the following semester, an unprecedented situation in the history of ASM.

"The main constitutional concern … is that many votes are not being counted at this point," Fox said. "The other constitutional issue is that we have to get it done next week. We can't go any longer than that."

Next week's Passover and Good Friday holidays could further complicate the issue. Under ASM bylaws, the organization cannot conduct official business on observed holidays. This, technically, would force the election commission to complete the ASM elections by Wednesday night at sunset — when Passover begins.

Other issues discussed by the election commission Wednesday night included how to conduct the elections when voting reopens.

Following the advice of DoIT officials, the election commission decided to have the Student Council elections be conducted with paper balloting, instead of the online voting system that has failed twice in the last week. The commission also voted to use student IDs to electronically verify that students only vote once.

March 29, the commission suspended the ASM election after the discovery of a "technical error" that potentially prevented some students from casting votes for all the Student Council candidates they wanted to.

The commission ultimately decided to split the election into two parts — one for the referendums and one for the Student Council seats.

With the discovery of another computer error that affected the election results, DoIT officials advised the commission to move to a paper ballot.

"This system is something we're not prepared to run again," DoIT Director Annie Stunden told the commission. "Paper [balloting] is the solution right now."

While elections for Student Council seats wait to be reopened, the results of the referendum votes that concluded Tuesday were also called into question Wednesday night.

With DoIT officials saying there were 436 student votes for the two referendums on the ASM ballot unaccounted for, SEC Vice Chair Joshua Tayack, in the 11th hour of Wednesday night's meeting, suggested the commission re-examine the referendum election results.

Two contentious referendums were on the ASM ballot this past week.

The Wisconsin Union referendum — which would have raised student fees to fund a Union renovation project — failed by a margin of 695 votes. The other initiative on the ballot, the Living Wage referendum — which aims to raise the wages of many University of Wisconsin employees — passed by a margin of 1,108 votes.

While the number of votes unaccounted for does not equal the difference of either referendum vote, Tayack said that the nullification of the referendum results was a possibility.

"The problems that affected the candidate election also affected the initiative election," Tayack told the commission. "It brings up enough questions to definitely reconsider re-running the initiatives."

With ASM being tossed into yet another chaotic election situation, Interim Dean of Students Lori Berquam Wednesday night voiced her belief that the current state of affairs was not the fault of ASM.

"I believe ASM [members] have done everything in their power in this election to do the best job," Berquam said. "They did everything they could."

The election commission will meet again today at 6 p.m. to continue to discuss how to remedy the situation.

Though many during Wednesday's meeting doubted it, Tayack said he was confident the election commission would get the elections completed in time.

"We will because we have to," Tayack said.

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Anonymous (April 6, 2006 @ 7:29am):

"Next week's Passover and Good Friday holidays could further complicate the issue. Under ASM bylaws, the organization cannot conduct official business on observed holidays. This, technically, would force the election commission to complete the ASM elections by Wednesday night at sunset -- when Passover begins."

I think this is the greatest news we've heard so far!

Can someone please find a way to keep the elections from happening by next week Wednesday? Unfortunately, I suppose it probably isn't that simple to make ASM just go away.

If the elections do have to happen, they should put only one question on the ballot: "Do the students of UW-Madison support the immediate and permanent disbandment of ASM?" That's one way to get results with a margin of victory much larger than the margin of error.

Anonymous (April 6, 2006 @ 7:43am):

I know everyone's going to jump on ASM for this, and I understand that impulse, but really this seems like a DOIT problem and something that's outside the control of the ASM. Let's hope the paper ballots go better

Anonymous (April 6, 2006 @ 8:25am):

I want to see SLAC say that it doesn't matter about the miscounted votes because it wouldn't affect the outcome. Profess democracy then deny the efficacy of someone's vote. If someone voted and was not recorded, that is foul play.

Anonymous (April 6, 2006 @ 8:59am):

So the idiot at the top wants to eliminate ASM. Let's ask all the students that are receiving grant money for events they have coming up if they want ASM to disappear. Lets ask the students in the groups that have applied for next year's Operations grants if they want ASM to disappear.
Though not a Student council member I can guess that none of them want to do the job any longer then they have to. especially with idiotic comments like that one.

Anonymous (April 6, 2006 @ 10:05am):

I smell corruption. First the uncounted margin of error is not enough to change the election results. So, why run it again? A new paper ballot will only serve to make voting more inconvenient for students who have already voted and don't have time for this Wisconsin Union nonsense. Geeez, they must really want the political cover for raising student fees. At some point, you have to admit you lost.

Anonymous (April 6, 2006 @ 10:23am):

SLAC's point is that votes should be counted, but to throw away almost 9000 votes because of 400, when those 400 would not have changed anything, is not the answer.

Anonymous (April 6, 2006 @ 10:37am):

Cheers to extending Chair Varney's conservative dynasty!

Anonymous (April 6, 2006 @ 11:10am):

Use paper ballots. This is a mole hill, not a mountain.

Anonymous (April 6, 2006 @ 11:31am):

"SLAC's point is that votes should be counted, but to throw away almost 9000 votes because of 400, when those 400 would not have changed anything, is not the answer."

The point is that votes weren't counted. Period. There is no nuance, people were denied their constitutional right to vote. When you say count every vote, you count every vote, no questions. And second, people have no idea if it was just 436 votes. Last week DoIt said that there were no discrepancies at all. They have no idea, their system is too screwed up and even the SJ has no faith in their system anymore.

What is SLAC afraid of? Their measure will probably win again and the Union's will probably lose so why not just run a legit, clean election?

Votes were not counted period. They need to be counted, otherwise this election is tainted.

Anonymous (April 6, 2006 @ 12:35pm):

Eric Varney, you're my hero!

Anonymous (April 6, 2006 @ 1:14pm):

Write in Mike Brandt for President!

Anonymous (April 6, 2006 @ 2:28pm):

Should have switched to paper after the fiasco 2 years ago. This isn't DoIT's problem, ASM consitution states the yare responsible for testing the system. If it didn't work they should have had a paper ballot for the beginning.

It is pathetic that somehow DoIT gets made into a scapegoat for ASM's negligent preparation

Anonymous (April 6, 2006 @ 2:41pm):

CONSPIRACY!!! I smell conspiracy. They wouldn't want to redo the election because student voices were lost in the technical problems. They must be doing it to cover up the use of seg fees to buy stuff. What kind of stuff you ask? GOOD STUFF!

P.S. The moon is hollow

Anonymous (April 6, 2006 @ 4:06pm):

Hilarious, student photo IDs required for the ASM election, but no photo IDs for voting in WI!

I encourage those involved to do what they can to sabotage the paper ballot election from taking place before the constitutional deadline next week, then there will be no ASM.... and no one will even miss it.

Anonymous (April 6, 2006 @ 5:36pm):

What is this, Florida? This sounds very much like the voting wasn't going whichever way ASM wanted, so they decided to scrap it altogether.

That's not democracy, it's fascist dictatorship. I want my entire seg fee refunded now.