[media-credit name=’BRYAN FAUST/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Officials from the University of Wisconsin Associated Students of Madison met with community members Wednesday at the Student Council's annual Town Hall meeting.

They discussed a wide range of pressing issues, including the recent ASM election fiasco, the resulting inception of Student Government and the reworking of the controversial UW Roman Catholic Foundation budget.

In particular, ASM Chair Eric Varney said he was looking forward to a return to some form of electronic voting in the fall.

"I'm very disappointed with all of the stuff that happened, but I'm happy with how it was handled," Varney said.

ASM student elections were meant to begin March 28, but both that election and a following online election were considered compromised when elections officials found technical flaws in the voting systems.

The third election, conducted by paper ballot, resulted in a far lower voter turnout, but has so far been deemed successful.

Within the next few days, Varney said ASM would have the votes from the most recent election certified as final results.

However, with the election fiasco now ended, ASM officials have been forced to face the sudden presence of the new Student Government.

The newly formed group argues ASM is in need of heavy reform to combat issues like the botched election.

Freshman ASM member Sol Grosskopf, who was present to field questions from students, said Student Government would attempt to continue its reform process or possibly start its own organization.

"[Student Government is] going to keep trying to fight for the students in what they see as a good fight," Grosskopf noted.

However, Varney called the group "nothing more than several students" who were not a registered student organization.

"We (ASM) do have the backing of the student body," Varney said. "That's going to last for many years."

ASM Finance Committee Chair Jennifer Knox also noted events like the ASM Town Hall meeting were meant to foster and reform just the types of services Student Government claims to want to reform.

"One of the things we're doing is really trying to do public things like this," Knox said. "We are open and we are listening."

ASM members also addressed recent budgets for several student organizations, which were returned to ASM after UW Chancellor John Wiley noticed several discrepancies.

In particular, a budget for UWRCF has been controversial for both the initial difficulty of passing ASM hurdles last fall in the first round of budget hearings, and is now controversial for claims that funding a religious organization would breach the state's First Amendment rights under the Establishment Clause.

However, several universities from around the country have gone to court on the issue, often ending in favor of religious organizations on grounds that they also have a First Amendment right to preserve — one to the right of free association.

Varney said ASM had sent the UWRCF budget back with cuts related to the funding of their building and its maintenance. However, ASM did not kill the budget because of its religious ties.

"We sent [budgets] back to the chancellor. This is what SSFC decided and what Student Council decided," Varney said. "It's not within our jurisdiction to decide whether these activities are of a certain religiousness in nature."

In addition to these subjects, ASM also addressed issues of transparency, the ASM bar-age campaign and the new textbook-rental program.